Emily Vanek
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Anna K Wood she-they
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: School of Social Work and Sociology Department / Social Work
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Oral5
Session: Session 6 – 4:40pm – 5:30 pm
Room: Breakout room 5
Authors:
Presenter: 6
Abstract
My research project is focused on reading and coding press releases from institutions of higher education regarding sexual violence/assault on campus. My research mentor, Anna-K-Wood, along with 5 other team members and I have been looking at this data since September 2021. Our lab task was to conduct grounded, inductive thematic coding to uncover emergent themes and patterns that we found in how institutions of higher education represented campus sexual assault both generally and on their local campuses. Initially, once we began coding the press releases released between 1990-2010, we noticed that there was little to no mention of campus sexual violence/assault, gender-based violence, and due process rights for alleged perpetrators until we reached the press releases post-March 13, 2006, which was the infamous Duke-Lacrosse legal case. Thus, we redirected our focus to examine how institutions of higher education publicly portrayed their own campuses and responses to sexual assault before and after the Duke-Lacrosse case. So far in our search, we’ve found themes such as the use of gendered language, vagueness, ambiguity, and involving the legal system. The most common thread throughout the press releases post-Duke-Lacrosse is the fact that institutions utilize language and terms to take no accountability for the harm caused and no action to resolve and remedy future violence.
Interdisciplinary, Social Sciences
