University of Victoria

Feminist Organizing on University Campuses

The goal of this session is to explore the possibilities for feminist organizing on university campuses and examine what role students, staff and faculty can have in such a movement. Within the context of continued cuts by the Canadian federal government to programs that support women and other social justice initiatives in Canada, and as raucous debates about abortion, rape and civil rights resurface in both Canada and the United States, the organized presence of feminist groups has become more visible. How is this translating to the university context? What does feminism look like on Canadian campuses? How might feminist-identified groups think about integrating those that may have been previously less involved in feminist organizing (such as university staff, racialized groups, and men)? Panelists may present the results from grass-roots organizing initiatives or more traditional research projects; however, presenters will be asked to limit the length of their formal presentations in order to ensure that there is time for discussion with audience members.

Chair: Rebecca Godderis, Wilfrid Laurier University

Session Organizer: Rebecca Godderis, University of Wilfrid Laurier, rgodderis@wlu.ca

De-Institutionalizing Dissent on Campus

Judith Taylor, University of Toronto Department of Sociology, jtaylor@chass.utoronto.ca

Over the last 30 years, universities have greatly elaborated feminist outposts, both strategically and because of grassroots efforts, in administration and the classroom. Many universities have Women, Gender, and Sexuality academic programs, sexual harassment officers, equity specialists, Women’s Centres, campus student feminist organizations, and the like. While students often take for granted the state of these offices and programs, faculty, who often observe them much longer, have often a better sense of the way in which they can atrophy, exist as placeholders. They can be places to still political creativity rather than inspire it, absorb critique, and truncate feminism’s reach. In this paper, I analyze the problem of sexual harassment of students, illustrating the political futility of feminist-inspired resources on campus and thinking through the complexity and promise of faculty-student alliance, de-institutionalized campaigns, and discursive interventions of the everyday.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-061

From ‘No! means no’ to ‘Slutwalk’: Date rape campaigns, college culture, and evolving media discourses of feminism

Kimberly Seida, McGill University, Quebec, Canada, kimberly.seida@mail.mcgill.ca

In the early 1990s, highly publicized rape trials and academic discussions of sexual assault on North American college campuses set media channels aflame with discussions of ‘date rape’. As the Canadian political and legal systems have evolved over time, the conversation surrounding gender-based violence, specifically date rape, has undergone considerable changes, with media portrayal of the issue reflecting (and perpetuating) these changes. The present paper thus critically and historically examines the connections between gender-based violence, the changing face of feminist activism evidenced by numerous campaigns, and anti-feminist backlash through the subject of date rape. First, utilizing a social constructivist approach and content analysis methodology, this paper will examine the representation of date rape in three Canadian newspapers. The shifts in newspapers’ portrayal of date rape as a sociopolitical issue largely concentrated in campus environments will be explored, as well as newspaper media’s (mis)representation of feminist activism. These findings show that while the discourse of date rape has altered over the past twenty years, ideological hegemony is re-established through a silencing of feminist concerns regarding the matter and a deflection of the connections between date rape and gendered power relations. Last, the paper will discuss strategies feminist groups can utilize to restructure both campus awareness and media portrayal of date rape and gender-based violence.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-061

University Priorities and the Struggle for a Campus Women's Centre

Melanie Carroll, University of Calgary, mcarroll@ucalgary.ca

In 2010, university administrators at my research site amalgamated the campus Women’s Centre with a Centre for Community-Engaged Learning. This process relied on university administrative trends focusing on student engagement that failed to take into account the experiential knowledge of the Women’s Centre staff and volunteers. That the amalgamation was deemed appropriate despite the concerns of the Women’s Centre frontline staff and volunteers highlights the conflict between the views of the greater university organization and the smaller feminist organization attempting to work within it. The fundamental meaning of the Women’s Centre and the feminist nature of its work was undermined by the amalgamation. My study uses institutional ethnography to both discover how the feminist work of Women’s Centre staff and volunteers was originally organized, and how university administrators undermined this work through the efforts leading up to the amalgamation and in the amalgamation itself.

Wednesday June 5, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-061