Michael A. Messner was born in Salinas, California, and educated from kindergarten to Ph.D. in California's once-great public schools. He lives in South Pasadena with sociologist and author Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, and they have two sons, Miles and Sasha. Since 1987 Messner has worked as a professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California. The author of several books, he teaches and speaks publicly on issues of gender-based violence, the lives of men and boys, and gender and sports. His new book, Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women, co-authored with Max Greenberg and Tal Peretz, will be published by Oxford University Press in February, 2015.