Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

In this paper, we reflect on gender based violence as part of the range of academic violences. Specifically, we reflect on the official mechanisms used to eradicate sexual violence at University of Granada and explore the impact of these mechanisms among the academic community.

Paper long abstract:

​​The Organic Law 3/2007, for the effective equality between women and men, forces Spanish Universities to design and execute Equality Plans in order to guarantee gender equality (Soto, 2019). However, these plans have not avoided the perpetuation of inequality, harassment and sexual and gender violence experiences. These violences are often hard to identify due to the nondiscriminatory nature that has been socially assigned to the public university (Ballarín, 2015). Furthermore, the neoliberal influence that introduces the values of individualism and the "myth" of meritocracy exacerbate the invisibility of gender violence and inequality, and also racial and class discrimination (Falcón & Philipose, 2017, p. 186).

In this communication, we reflect on the following questions: What are the official mechanisms used to eradicate this kind of violence at the University of Granada? Are these mechanisms against sexual violence an extension of the burocatric control over the people affected by this violence? Are these mechanisms articulated with the criminal competences and with the student and feminist movements when addressing sexual violence? Are there any alternative responses to this violence among the students?

The goal of our communication is to analyze academic violence and its effects on the field of gender violence, as well as the strategies implemented by groups and individuals affected by such violences. This is part of a larger research project called "Gender violence in a context of change: challenges for an analysis from a gender perspective" (B-SEJ-220-UGR20, financed by the Government of Andalusia, FEDER program 2014-2020, Spain).

Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

In this communication, I would like to raise the question of gender-related perception of risk and experience of violence on the field. I will try to account for female researchers’ higher exposure to gender-based violence and the common silence and institutional unpreparedness that surrounds it.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of my paper will be to raise the issue of female field anthropologists’ higher exposure to gender-based violence when on the field, and the unpreparedness, or voluntary ignorance, of the academic environment.

The problem of being confronted to gender-based violence concerns many field researchers, especially women and sexual minorities, whether they are students or confirmed researchers. To explore this issue, I rely on the available literature and on informal discussions I have had with female colleagues of different statuses in France about issues of oppression, assaults and harassment while doing fieldwork, as well as the institutional reaction after I had myself experienced gender-based violence during PhD fieldwork three years ago.

The literature indicates that the definition of fieldwork as a basis for the production of anthropological knowledge draws on male experiences of fieldwork which excludes being subject of gender-based violence. Paradigmatic of this is the rite de passage mythology still present in the culture of research, and which prevents the expression of hardships and pain (Derrider et al. 2021).

Several hypothesises can be made to account for the lack of preparedness and communication of both the institutional environments and the women researchers themselves. Widespread in the profession, guilt and the imperative to be socially integrated on the field may sometimes increase victim-shaming (the blame of the cultural faux-pas). Equally important for the possibility to provide support are the material and practical aspects of doing research: financial security and institutional attachment of female anthropology students and researchers counts, and the lack of it may often add to the taboo on the legal responsibility of research centres and universities.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

By looking at the case of the social movement against sexual violence in Quebec universities, this presentation investigates the activists’ understanding of sexual violence in academic context, the institutional barriers they confront, and the strategies they adopt to negotiate power relations.

Paper long abstract:

In 2016, a student perpetrated a series of sexual assaults against women in the residences of Université Laval (Quebec). The event gained extensive media coverage, generated a broader debate on violence against women, and sparked demonstrations of solidarity for victims in several cities of Quebec. Thanks to the student and feminist mobilisation that has intensified since 2012 against the lack of institutional responses to sexual violence, in 2017 the Quebec government passed the law 22.1, an act to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions. The law mandates universities to create policies against sexual violence, a code of conduct for student-professor intimate relationships, and educational programs for all members of the academic community. Furthermore, the law requires universities to include members of the student community in the standing committee for the development, implementation and revision of the policy.

Quebec legislative change represents an opportunity to investigate the transformative potential of social movements against sexual violence in university. Through narrative interviews, I look at the experiences of activists, researchers and social workers with the policy-making process to analyse institutional processes of resistance and change within academia. Starting from an activist’s claim that “universities are people, not just structures!”, this presentation investigates the activists’ understanding of sexual violence in academic context, the institutional barriers they confront, and the strategies they adopt to negotiate power relations.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to discuss the prevalence of eurocentrism in research on sexual violence in academia and connects it to the concept of epistemic violence.

Paper long abstract:

Research discussing sexual violence at higher education institutions has gained significant momentum in the past decades. However, the research has primarily centered around case studies in the United States and the United Kingdom, with a slow but steady increase in literature on some EU countries. Such research does not focus solely on analyzing cases of sexual violence but often also engages in proposing new prevention and intervention strategies. While these are fruitful contributions to the local context, they are not defined as such but instead portrayed as globally valid and open for exportation to the world in the form of best practice models. Only research focusing on the Global South is deemed "localized".

I utilize the concept of epistemic violence to address the prevalence of eurocentrism in research on sexual violence, with a specific focus on sexual violence in higher education. The concept of epistemic violence allows us to go beyond the general criticism of exporting western beliefs worldwide and engage more directly with what is left out. I apply the text analysis method to academic papers published in journals specialized on sexual violence to show how the literature is biased by the overrepresentation and generalization of Global North cases and recommendations.

While the steady growth of decolonial and postcolonial research has led to greater reflections on academia's history of partaking in acts of violence, there still needs to be a deeper discussion on the ways academia is supporting violence today.