Michael Kimmel

Just before receiving the American Sociological Association's Jessie Bernard Award in 2018, Kimmel was accused of sexual harassment. Soon after, the American Sociological Association provided a statement by him to the Chronicle of Higher Education in an article that outlined a history of sexual harassment and an on-going Title IX investigation. In this statement, he delayed receipt of the award, giving his accusers six months to file a complaint with the American Sociological Association's Committee on Professional Ethics. No charges were ever filed. In addition, there were never any formal allegations by any individuals. Since that time one of Kimmel's former graduate student's accused him of occasionally espousing discriminatory attitudes towards the trans community, discussing pornography in work-related settings, and assigning non-work related tasks to his advisees.

Kimmel is considered a leading figure in the academic subfield of men's studies. He has written numerous books on gender and masculinities including Men's Lives (2010, 8th edition), The Gendered Society (2011, 4th edition), Manhood: a Cultural History (2012, 3rd edition), and Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (2008). He has co-edited The Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities (2005) and Men and Masculinities: a Social, Cultural and Historical Encyclopedia (2004) which was named "Best of Reference 2004" by the New York Public Library. Moreover, he is the editor of a series on genders and sexualities at New York University Press. In 1992–1993, Kimmel founded the journal Masculinities which was associated with the American Men's Studies Association. The journal was a precursor to the journal Men and Masculinities which was picked up by SAGE Publications in 1998 and became one of the first academic journals focused on men, with Kimmel as its editor.

In 2004, Kimmel was one of 15 scholars chosen for innovative scholarship by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. His research title was "Globalization and its Mal(e)contents: The Gendered Moral and Political Economy of the Extreme Right".

Before joining the Stony Brook University faculty in 1987, Kimmel worked as assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University from 1982 to 1986 as well as visiting assistant professor at New York University. He returned to his alma mater, the University of California, Berkeley, where he was visiting professor from 1992 to 1994. In the academic year 1992–1993, he was voted "Best Professor" on campus by The Daily Californian.

Born into a secular Jewish family, Kimmel earned a B.A. with distinction from Vassar College in 1972; an M.A. from Brown University in 1974; and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981 with a dissertation titled: Absolutism and its Discontents: Fiscal Crisis and Political Opposition in Seventeenth Century France and England.

Michael Scott Kimmel (born February 26, 1951) is an American sociologist specializing in gender studies. He holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University in New York and is the founder and editor of the academic journal Men and Masculinities. Kimmel is a spokesperson of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) and a longtime feminist. In 2013, he founded the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University, where he is Executive Director. In 2018 he was publicly accused of sexual harassment.