SJE1978H
This course addresses manifestations of sexual, gender-based and racial violence against participants in higher education on university and college campuses as global, historical and interlocked occurrences in high, low and middle-income countries in the global North and South. The course explores root causes, modes, prevalence of such forms of violence impacting disproportionally women, transgender, queer, Indigenous, racialized and disabled students from the perspective of transnational and feminist theories relating violence to 'gender' and 'sex' constructs, power inequalities, patriarchal structures, state ideologies, colonization, organization of institutions, and socialization of individuals and social groups. The course connects feminist knowledges pertaining to violence to the material and cultural realities of higher education in countries around the world, including Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia, Russia, Nigeria, Chile, South Africa, and Spain. The course examines further the cultural, political and ideological properties of widely-implemented violence prevention programs on college and university campuses worldwide, inviting students to assess critically the successes and limitations of these programs against student and faculty needs and in relation to the root causes of sexual, racial and gender-based violence. The course further introduces students to under-studied and undertheorized forms of institutional violence in higher education such as lack of supports for mothers, emotional labour of social workers investigating incidents of violence and supporting survivors, as well as the debated issue
of universities' responsibility for students subjected to domestic violence.
Along the way, the course explores positive practices in research on sexual and gender-based violence in education linking research on prevalence and prevention to international bodies and practices such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
The course readings and assignments will position graduate students specializing in social justice education for successful research and writing in this area of study, encouraging especially studies of novel and evidence-based violence prevention paradigms that support safe higher education where all learners prosper.