GWS in the News: Chair Syrett on Fraternities

As we have seen this fall, college fraternities have been making national headlines as there have been multiple reports of sexual misconduct and hazing within fraternities across the country. The expertise of Nick Syrett, Professor and Chair of Gender & Women’s Studies, on fraternities has been called upon from media outlets all over the globe as folks grapple with how to make sense of the concerning and ongoing pattern of sexual misconduct, violence, and/or assault within fraternity culture.

Syrett’s expertise comes from his book, The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities, where he traces the full history of traditionally white college fraternities in America from their days in antebellum all-male schools to the sprawling modern-day college campus and reveals how fraternity brothers have defined masculinity over the course of their 180-year history. Based on extensive research at twelve different schools and analyzing at least twenty national fraternities, The Company He Keeps explores many factors — such as class, religiosity, race, sexuality, athleticism, intelligence, and recklessness — that have contributed to particular versions of fraternal masculinity at different times. Syrett demonstrates the ways that fraternity brothers’ masculinity has had consequences for other students on campus as well, emphasizing the exclusion of different groups of classmates and the sexual exploitation of female college students.