Fatherhood, Memory, and Identity

Dear Colleagues

The field of fatherhood research is continuing to grow exponentially and is increasingly decentered and diverse, reflecting the plurality of fatherhood identities and practices both within and across national and cultural contexts. Recent notable publications in this field have focused on fathering and poverty (Tarrant, 2022); young fathers (Neale and Tarrant, 2022); fathers and loss (Jones, Murphy, and Robb, 2025); and global fatherhoods (Eerola et al., 2025). The broader field of masculinity studies, with which this field intersects, has provided the theoretical context, building on feminist scholarship, for a renewed emphasis on caring masculinities as a key component of men’s social identities (Robb, 2020). At the same time, discussion and debate about the role of fathers and the nature of fatherhood continue unabated in the media and the political sphere, often intersecting with moral panics about the state of boys and the prevalence of ‘toxic masculinity’ (e.g., Reeves, 2022; Global Boyhood Initiative, 2022). While there is a sense that old, inherited models of fatherhood are no longer valid, there is considerable debate about what should constitute the ‘good’ father in the present. 

Against this background, men themselves are drawing on a diversity of models and approaches to re-define fatherhood in the present. Fathering identities in a postmodern, postindustrial, and increasingly unsettled and fluid world appear to be in constant flux. In this context, among the many resources for constructing and maintaining a sense of identity as a father, memories, whether personal, familial, cultural, or historical, and processes of remembering, recalling, and commemorating play a dynamic and constitutive role.

This Special Issue will provide a platform for exploring the many and diverse connections and relationships between fatherhood, memory, and identity. We invite contributions that explore these connections and relationships in innovative and creative ways, drawing on either theoretical or empirical research and employing a diversity of methodologies and a variety of theoretical understandings of identity (e.g., sociocultural, psychosocial, philosophical). We invite contributions from any relevant disciplinary backgrounds, exploring, but by no means limited to, the topics below:

• The role of personal memory (e.g., of childhood, being fathered/parented) in the construction of personal fathering identities;
• Family memories (e.g., of fathers, grandfathers, father figures) and their influence on fathering in the present;
• The part played by historical remembering (or misremembering) in either personal or social/collective/political constructions of fatherhood;
• The importance of remembering/memorialization/commemoration (for example, of a lost child, parent, or other family member) in fatherhood identities and practices;
• Constructing identity through shared memories within relationships/families;
• The impact of memory loss on fathering identities and family relationships;
• The intersection of past and present in the experience of fathering or in political/legal constructions of fatherhood;
• Cultural representations of fathers and fathering that in some way utilize memory, reminiscence, or reconstructions of the past.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor (martin.robb@open.ac.uk) or to the Genealogy editorial office (genealogy@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer-review process.

References

• Eerola, P., Twamley, K., Priskanen, H. and Romero-Balsas, P. (eds.) (2025) Caring Fathers in the Global Context, Bristol: Policy Press.
• Global Boyhood Initiative (2022) The State of UK Boys: An Urgent Call for Caring, Connected Boyhoods, Washington, DC: Equimundo.
• Jones, K., Murphy, S. and Robb, M. (2025) ‘ “We can’t play with them, but we can play for them”: fathers uniting in grief through football’, in Jones, K. and Robb, M. (eds.) Men and Loss: New Perspectives on Bereavement, Grief and Masculinity, London and New York: Routledge.
• Neale, B. and Tarrant, A. (2024) The Dynamics of Young Fatherhood: Understanding the Parenting Journeys and Support Needs of Young Fathers, Bristol: Policy Press.
• Reeves. R. (2022) Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It, London: Bloomsbury.
• Robb, M. (2020) Men, Masculinities and the Care of Children: Images, Ideas and Identities, London and New York: Routledge.
• Tarrant, A. (2021) Fathering and Poverty: Uncovering Men’s Participation in Low-Income Family Life, Bristol: Policy Press.

Dr. Martin Robb
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genealogy is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• fatherhood
• memory
• identity