WGSS 31.05 Activism, Violence, and the University

In this seminar, we defamiliarize the problem of “campus sexual violence” by situating it in histories of racialized, gendered, and sexualized violence that produce its normative meanings and subjects. Following critical university studies, we study the university as an institution historically imbricated in multiple orders of violence, and treat the campus, as Rana Jaleel observes, as “living archives of uneven histories of violence.” We prioritize Black, Indigenous, women of color, and queer critiques that have problematized mainstream definitions of sexualized violence based in narrow notions of sex and sexual injury. Instead, we expand ideas of sexualized violence by tracing genealogies of consent, property, sovereignty, and force through histories of slavery, colonialism, and rape. With a focus on praxis, we study various approaches to antiviolence activism since the 1970s, which have diverged around questions of legal reform, state collaboration, and carceral strategies. Drawing these themes together, we end with abolitionist feminist and queer critiques of the neoliberal university, administrative injustice, and campus policing. Throughout the seminar, we imagine possibilities for addressing violence – broadly construed, on and off campus – in de-individuated, anti-carceral ways.

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:SOC; WCult:CI

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies