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.