We were delighted to welcome you to the 2018 Michigan Meeting, Ending Gendered Violence in School, Work, and Life: Critical Conversations at the Intersection of Theory and Practice.
Our hope was that by bringing together an interdisciplinary group of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, activists, survivors, advocates, and students, we brainstormed new solutions to gender-based violence.
We built in lots of time for coffee breaks and meals and planned the sessions to be as interactive as possible to allow ideas to come out of conversation. We were committed to creating a space that was as inclusive as possible.
The planning committee was originally brought together by our concerns about campus sexual assault. As we started planning, we observed that campus sexual assault is often considered in a narrow fashion, without attention to adolescent development or to the broader world outside of the university. Often forms of gender-based violence are considered in isolation from each other. Differences in experiences by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and other dimensions of social identity have also not received enough attention. Thus, we have attempted in our program to be inclusionary and expansive. We encouraged attendees to step outside of their own areas of expertise to learn about aspects of this issue unfamiliar to them.
We loosely designed the event around the arc of human development.
- The first day of the meeting focused on adolescent development, emerging adulthood, and includes the experiences of young people who do not attend four-year residential colleges as well as those who do.
- The second day addressed gender-based violence on the college campus. As the related Summit on the Prevention of Campus Sexual Assault honed in on prevention, we focused on the policy context.
- The third day of the meeting moved beyond the campus context, both developmentally and geographically. We examined interventions in the community, particularly the work of community organizations in the Southeast Michigan area, stretching to innovative work from beyond the United States.
A pair of keynote talks, by Sofie Karasek and Beth Richie, attend to directions in activism against sexual violence and the connections between sexual violence, racism, and mass incarceration.
This Michigan Meeting was made possible through the generosity of the Rackham Graduate School and a host of units on the University of Michigan campus. We thank all of the units who offered support.
We hope that you will found the discussions insightful and will continue the hard work even after the final session closed.
Best wishes,
The Michigan Meeting Planning Committee
Preparing for the Conference
We have thought a lot about how to make this space as inclusive as we can. We suggest that you review these materials in advance so that you can collaborate with us in creating an inclusive space.
- Anti-Harassment Resource Guide: Developed by the ADVANCE Program at the University of Michigan, this document outlines ways in which academia and other institutions can prevent sexual harassment at conferences and other events. We have elected not to serve alcohol in order to offer an alternative to the ubiquity of alcohol at academic functions.
- Guidelines for Dialogue: Developed by the Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan, this document provides guidelines for healthy and productive group discussions. We will discuss some general guidelines for engagement through the conference as a whole.
- Creating a Trauma-Informed Conference Space: Addressing difficult material can re-activate prior trauma. Developed by CAsCAid, this document helps us recognize the signs of trauma in ourselves and others and to respond in a helpful way.
- Interactive Formats: The moderators of each session have been encouraged to design each session to be as interactive and engaging as possible. The format of the sessions will differ. We welcome your enthusiastic participation in the sessions!
- Guidelines for Presentation: When presenting, there are certain items that need to be considered in order for your participants to feel like they are able to be fully engaged and comfortable. Developed by the Sociologists for Women in Society, this guide offers tips for making your presentations as accessible as possible.
- Accessibility: The registration form asked about any accommodations you need. If you realize that you need an accommodation not mentioned, please let Laura Olech know as soon as possible so that we can provide this accommodation.