Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies
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Browsing Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies by Subject "Activism"
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Item Open Access An Intersectional Analysis of Sexual Violence Policies, Responses, and Prevention Efforts at Ontario Universities(2019-11-22) Colpitts, Emily Marie; Crosby, Alison D.In the context of public scrutiny, heightened media attention, and the introduction of provincial legislation on campus sexual violence, Canadian post-secondary institutions are facing unprecedented pressure to respond. This dissertation critically analyzes how sexual violence is being conceptualized in post-secondary institutions policies, responses, and prevention efforts. Specifically, the dissertation engages with the qualitative findings emerging from discourse analysis of post-secondary institutions sexual violence policies and interviews with 31 stakeholders, including students, faculty, and staff involved in efforts to prevent and address sexual violence at three Ontario universities and members of community anti-violence organizations. The project is grounded in an intersectional analysis of sexual violence, which de-centres the ideal survivor and challenges the dominant depoliticized framing of sexual violence as an interpersonal issue by revealing its structural dimensions and its intersections with systems of oppression. While a number of Ontario universities reference intersectionality in their sexual violence policies, this project examines the extent to which this translates into practice in their responses and prevention efforts and the myriad ways that contemporary neoliberal institutional cultures and the broader political climate limit the possibility of implementing intersectional approaches to campus sexual violence. Drawing on Sara Ahmeds (2014) concept of non-performativity, the dissertation concludes that these sexual violence policies may serve to publicly signal institutions commitment to addressing sexual violence and construct them as progressive for simply referencing intersectionality without necessarily transforming the ways in which sexual violence is institutionally embedded. Failing to ground efforts to prevent and address sexual violence at Canadian universities in an intersectional analysis that addresses its underlying social and structural dimensions may not only limit their effectiveness but also risks reproducing marginalization and systems of oppression by valorizing particular experiences of violence while obscuring others.Item Open Access Homelessness & Activism in Toronto & Montreal: Toward Community-Based Participatory Research & Emergent Strategy(2024-11-07) LaCroix, Sarah Lynn; da Silveira Gorman, RachelThis research explores generating a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project on technology, broadly construed, with housing justice and anti-poverty activist communities in Canada. This research employs stratified purposive sampling and semi-structured open-ended interviewing methods with Toronto and Montréal activists and is approached from the perspective of a CBPR methodology. 12 activists were interviewed for this research. Interviews indicate that barriers and access to technology centre on education, trustworthiness, usability, and dependability. However, activists also desire systemic and structural change grounded in communities. Activists indicate that elite academic researchers, people who represent the state, and corporations cannot solve issues surrounding homelessness and the Canadian housing market. Instead, activists recommend emergent project creation anchored in community as a possible avenue for mitigating aspects of these phenomena. As such, this research provides an appropriate foundation for multiple community projects beyond this text.