The Feminist Teacher’s Dilemma: Faculty Labor and the Culture of Sexual Violence in Higher Education

While activists and scholars have interrogated the problem of campus sexual assault, studies have yet to understand its effects on faculty labor. In this analytical essay, Stephanie R. Larson expands studies of campus sexual violence by addressing how ineffective reporting procedures and inadequate mechanisms of response have consequences for minoritized faculty that are not acknowledged by their institutions. Drawing on interview data with twenty humanities faculty members across a range of disciplines, ranks, and types of institutions, she analyzes how the invisible labor around reporting and responding to sexual violence creates a hostile work environment and ultimately exacerbates inequalities in higher education, illustrating how individuals who identify as women, people of color, and/or queer are especially subject to this additional labor. The essay concludes with implications for curriculum, policy, and advocacy.