CFP Managing, Researching,
and Enabling Respectful Sexual Conduct in Higher Education
19 - 20 February 2018
KANTL – The Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature
Ghent, Belgium
A two-day workshop organised by
ANSER –
Academic Network for Sexual and Reproductive Health and
Rights Policy, Ghent University
INSEP – International
Network for Sexual Ethics and Politics
Workshop Webpage: http://www.insep.ugent.be/workshops/mre2018/
Campus sexual violence and harassment is
endemic. Research shows that 20% of women at one time during their
academic career experience sexual assault and that 5% of men
undergo unwanted sexual conduct through force or incapacitation.
Rape, sexual violence, harassment, stalking, having to endure
unwelcomed sexual attentions - all pose a threat to the academic
and personal development of students as well of staff. Although
considered to be the 'gold-standard' in ethical sexual relations,
we are still confronted with an ethical deficit in sexual conduct
within institutions that often have the greatest rhetorical
commitment to ethical values.
From the late seventies onwards, there has been a growing
awareness of a widespread (date-)rape crisis and culture and of
workplace sexual harassment. A growing number of Higher Education
Institutions have developed strategies, policies and practices to
respond to and prevent non-consensual sexual relations. They have
focused on finding viable antidotes to: systemic sexual
harassment; the staggering prevalence of (often unreported) rape
and sexual violence; and problematic sexual behaviour within
staff-staff, staff-student and student-student relations. Yet
often these responses have been undermined by their relatively
secretive and subdued promotion within institutions and the
difficulties of policing social and sexual relationships.
How much has really changed? How much impact have these
initiatives had on the prevalence of sexual violence and
harassment? How far have policy and practice responses been
subordinated to issues of institutional reputation and liability?
How much have these contributed to enabling a culture of
consensual, open and diverse campus sexuality?
It is time to take stock, learn from the past and plan for the
future. In this two-day workshop, we’ll be looking at the ways
these often violent, non-consensual sexual relations have been
managed, researched and at what has been and can be done to enable
consensual sexual relations in the academy. The goal is to
identify and evaluate best practices and strategies, to sketch out
a future policy and research agenda and to contribute to the
development of a respectful and healthy sexual culture in Higher
Education. We seek to bring together researchers, policy makers,
academics and students to reflect on the sexual politics of higher
education and build a collaborative agenda for more research and
for the development of effective policy tools and practice
guidance.
We invite proposals for papers addressing the management of,
research into, and ways to enable consensual and respectful sexual
conduct in the academy. The two days themselves have already been
structured so as to direct discussion, with a half day each on:
• Theme 1: Managing sexual (mis)conduct
• Theme 2: Researching (non-)consensual sex
• Theme 3: Enabling consensual and respectful sex
Please indicate the theme(s) most suitable for your presentation.
The final afternoon will be a feedback and agenda setting session.
We are particularly interested in submission or expressions of
interest for participation where delegates commit the attending
the full programme. Given the desire for the workshop to produce
tangible outcomes, we seek to build a group of committed
participants to take the project forward. In this respect,
participants who do not wish to contribute a paper should write
explaining their interest in attending and participating. The
language of the workshop will be English.
Each theme has a particular focus as specified below:
Theme 1: Managing (non-)Consensual Sex in the Academy –
Policies and Practices
We invite contributions that make an empirical and/or programmatic
contribution to one or more of the following topics:
• the identification of current policy and practice models that
either provide lessons on (in)effective management or
possibilities for best practices for comprehensive responses to
sexual violence and harassment prevention. These should include
policies and practices that reflect strategies for compliance,
implementation, and evaluation
• more specific topics might include, but are not limited to
policies and practices relating to:
- The many faces of sexual violence: Sexual harassment, Campus
rape, Gender-based sexual violence, Sexual orientation and
identity based sexual violence, …
- Procedures and practices: responding strategies to sexual
violence complaints, lifting barriers to reporting unwanted sex,
attention and care for victims, fair process, bystander-focused
strategies, …
- New technologies of dating & sexualised social media:
sexting, bullying, privacy and unwanted exposure, …
- Student hook‐up culture, friends with benefits & casual Sex
- Political/Sexual/Gender correctness on campus
- Student unions as sexualised and/or sexuality/identity‐based
organisations
- Student sex work
Theme 2: Researching (non-)consensual sex in the academy -
empirical and programmatic
We invite contributions that make an empirical and/or programmatic
contribution (e.g., in the form of a research agenda or best
practice criteria) to one or more of the following topics:
• Contribution to knowledge base
- Establish the prevalence of nonconsensual sex in the academy,
including all status groups and relationship constellations (i.e.,
among students, between students and faculty, between faculty and
non-academic staff)
- Clarify the definition and scale of different forms of
nonconsensual sex (e.g., differentiation between sexual harassment
and contact sexual victimization)
- Develop/outline a gender-inclusive approach to the study of
sexual aggression that considers different orientations as well as
male victimization and female perpetration.
- Develop/outline an approach to the study of sexual aggression
that considers diversity in relation to ethnicity, race, religion,
disability and other intersectional differences
- Contribute to the theoretical understanding of risk factors of
perpetration and vulnerability factors of victimization
- Design and evaluate evidence-based prevention programmes
• Methodological issues and good practice standards
- Respective strengths and limitations of quantitative and
qualitative approaches to studying nonconsensual sexual
experiences in the academy
- Evaluation designs for assessing interventions
- Ethical boundary conditions that need to be observed (a) in the
way questions are asked, (b) in the way participants are protected
from/supported in case of negative consequences of thinking and
reporting about nonconsensual sexual experiences
Theme 3: Enabling Consensual and Respectful Sex in the Academy:
Policies and Practices
We Invite contributions that make an empirical and/or programmatic
contribution (e.g., in the form of a best practice criteria) to
one or more of the following topics:
• Identify concepts, models and best practices in comprehensive
responses to sexual violence and harassment prevention,
incorporating strategies for compliance, implementation, and
evaluation
• Identify concepts models and best practices for creating a safe,
emancipatory and healthy consent-based campus sexual culture and
environment
• More specific topics might include, but are not limited to
policies relating to:
- Best practice exemplars for responding to sexual harassment and
violence
- Feminist approaches to sexual violence and harassment
- Anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory strategies and practices
- Enabling stakeholders and institutional change in procedures and
structures
- Sex and sexuality education - curriculum and community
- Respecting sexual diversity and recognising sexual differences
in attitudes, relationships and practices
- Balancing protection and freedom
Submission & Timeline
Abstracts for presentations (300 words) or for panels of up to
three speakers (please submit a 500-600 overview and set of
abstracts) should reach us by 15 October 2017 at the
latest, as should expressions of interest from non-paper giving
participants. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 16
October 2017. A 4-page summary of your paper should be send
to us by 19 January 2018 for prior circulation, to
maximise time for discussion, and paper givers should expect to
present their papers in short and succinct time slots. Please send
abstracts to:
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The fee for the two-day workshop is 50 Euro. Participation in the
conference dinner is optional and details of this and suitable
accommodation will be sent to all those who register. Registration
will open at the end of October 2017 and close at the beginning of
February 2018.
For more info on INSEP & ANSER please visit: ANSER – https://www.ugent.be/anser/
& INSEP – http://www.insep.ugent.be/
More info on the workshop venue (in Dutch): http://kantl.be/