9th Annual GDS Summit on Sexual Assault & Consent

Cohorts are mixed groups of educators, students, and community partners. Cohorts are moderated by GDS student organizers. If you are not already in a cohort, please add yourself to any open slot.

This presentation aims to discuss the concept of "historical amnesia" and the use of rape as a weapon of colonization by taking students through three case studies of colonial violence in North America, French Algeria, and Israel. At the GDS conference, it's important to talk about what it means to be a survivor, and the community, present and historical, that you embrace in your healing/life post-assault. There is an extensive history of colonies utilizing rape and gendered violence to facilitate their colonies and subdue Indigenous populations through trauma. Through discussing this history, we hope to prompt critical thinking about the following: Who are the survivors of colonial and genocidal sexual violence? Why are their stories important, and what does it tell us about colonialism at large? How do these colonial empires go about revising and rewriting these histories, and how does this remind us of our modern-day silencing structures and how they operate to perpetuate rape culture, protect rapists, and suppress survivor voices?

Join two student organizers from End Sexual Violence on Campus to discuss the "Whorearchy," a term coined by scholar and sex worker advocate, Kimberly Fuentes. Through Fuentes' framework, we will explore the gradients of sex workers' experiences, and how the criminalization of their work disproportionately impacts and harms Black, disabled, queer, and poor folks. Additionally, we will discuss potential responses to violence within the sex industry, and how different feminist theorists propose solutions. Get ready for a dense, but incredibly important session about the experience of sex workers from an intersectional perspective.