Spring Scholarship Talks / Janet Shope & Leslie Lewis

Silences and Secrets: Knowledge of Sexual Assault on a College Campus 

Janet Shope, Center for People, Politics & Markets 

This post-sabbatical presentation, part of a larger research project, examines how knowledge gaps about sexual assault negatively impact perceptions of the college climate. By the time of graduation, the majority of students, survivors and their confidants, have acquired knowledge of sexual assault, and yet, their knowledge is largely marginalized, relegated to the under commons, unable to generate the uptake needed to transform the discourse and social imaginary of college assault. Our research discusses the telling rules and processes that funnel disclosures of sexual assault along channels that contribute to silences and secrets and how these knowledge gaps limit the possibilities for epistemic justice.  

Liberation, the Gift Economy, the Undercommons, and Love 

Leslie Lewis, Center for Humanities  

In this talk I will discuss the essay “Liberatory Education” that I published during my sabbatical and use that as a jumping off point to characterize my current project, which involves a rethinking of the purpose and point of higher education