Tag: Women’s and Gender Studies

How Can We Prevent Sexual Assault on Our Campus? A Comprehensive History of Safe Ride and a Plan for the Future

Presenter: Hailey Chamberlain

Mentor: Vera Keller

Oral Presentation

Major: Women’s and Gender Studies

My research question is: Based on what we know about sexual assault, is Safe Ride effective in the fight against sexual assault? For my project, I first researched what we know about sexual assault on campuses, and how campuses have been responding to sexual assault. I looked at peer reviewed journals and papers which gave information about the legal process surrounding sexual assault, and talked about how Oregon schools have been responding.

Next, I conducted interviews with activists on campus. I asked what they know about Safe Ride, and what we need to be doing to stop campus assault. I also did archival research to learn more about Safe Ride’s history. Because I am a current member of the core staff at Safe Ride, I had access to the staff for interviews and their records. My archival research included looking at the amount of rides Safe Ride has given in the last few years. I also looked at Safe Ride’s collection of compiled articles about them since 1985. I looked at records of the grievances that were filed against Safe Ride before they became gender inclusive, in addition to articles about Safe Ride on the Emerald website.

Lastly, I conducted research on what schools have been doing to fight sexual assault. I looked at peer reviewed journals and papers through the library databases. I looked for papers that did research on what schools had already been doing and what affect there was. In my research I’ve concluded that schools that focus on three things are the most successful. The first is educating students on how to be effective bystanders, the second is having accessible resources, and the third is having sanctions in place to respond to sexual assault. I used this information to formulate a plan for the university and for Safe Ride, to encourage both to work together to provide the necessary resources to students.

Exotic Sexuality: Examining the Effect of Exotic Dancing on Women’s Sexuality

Presenter: Amber Bryan

Mentor: Lamia Karim

Poster: 10

Major: Women’s and Gender Studies 

Exotic dancing has been studied widely in the fields of anthropology, sociology, psychology, and women’s and gender studies with scholars such as Bernadette Barton and Katherine Frank arguing that women become exotic dancers because they are suffering from repetition compulsion, causing dancers to follow intimacy scripts both at work and outside of work. However, these arguments, as well as the past research conducted, have not adequately addressed the issue of how exotic dancing may affect the sexuality of the women working in the exotic dancing profession.

My research has examined and compared the participatory sexual encounters of women before becoming dancers to their participatory sexual encounters after becoming dancers. The rarely acknowledged issue of working as an exotic dancer and the effects it has had on women’s sexual interest in other women was a particular point of interest throughout this study. Through ethnographic and empirical research, I have determined that working as an exotic dancer does have an impact on the women’s sexuality, who they choose to engage in sexual encounters with, and how frequently the women participated in sexual encounters outside of work, though the outcome was different for each woman. The data also shows that, while some of the women did experience an increase in sexual activity with multiple partners, most of the stereotypes about exotic dancers, that they are whores or lesbians, did not hold true.