GWSS1913: Ending Sexual Violence at the University of Minnesota

The 2015 College Student Health Survey, administered by Boynton Health at the University of Minnesota found that there has been an increase in the number of women and men who reported they have been a victim/survivor of sexual assault. Approximately one in three (32.4%) female students at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities report experiencing a sexual assault within their lifetime, with 8.9% reporting having been assaulted within the past 12 months. This is an increase over previous surveys, including a 2013 survey in which 22 percent reported sexual assault in their lifetime. Male students at the college have experienced sexual assault at lower rates, with 10.7% reporting an assault within their lifetime and 2.7% reporting an assault within the past 12 months. Recently released research (Eisenberg, Lust, Mathiason & Porta, 2017) based on this very same annual surveillance program has found that rates of sexual assault victimization were considerably higher among LGBTQ students than heterosexual students. This interactive seminar asks and attempts to answer: what would it take to end sexual violence for everyone at the University of Minnesota? We will explore this question in the feminist criminology, public health, and anti-sexual violence movement literatures. In addition, we will learn from guest speakers—student activists, sexual assault advocates, Title IX coordinators, researchers, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, transformative justice collective members, etc.—who are working tirelessly both on- and off-campus to end both sexual violence and the “rape culture” that sustains it.

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