Editor’s Note: Caroline Heldman and Danielle Dirks were invited to the University of Oregon campus as part of the 2013-14 Lorwin Lectureship Series, presented by the Center for the Study of Women in Society. Because of a winter storm, all events were cancelled on the UO campus that day. CSWS was able to videotape a brief portion of their planned talk in a studio situation. For more information about reforming sexual violence prevention at the University of Oregon, visit the website “UO Coalition to End Sexual Violence.”

For more about Caroline Heldman and Danielle Dirks visit to the UO campus ...

“The New Anti-Rape Movement on Campus: Networked Survivors Fighting for Reform” — Caroline Heldman and Danielle Dirks

CSWS Presents the 2013–2014 Lorwin Lecture Series

Caroline Heldman and Danielle Dirks are leaders in the fight to strengthen campus sexual-assault policies and enforcement. In their role as professors at Occidental College in Los Angeles, they took the lead on a Title IX complaint last April, which said that the college had violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. See “2 Professors Demand Protection for Sexually Assaulted Students” (The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 4, 2013).

Heldman, associate professor and chair, Department of Political Science, Occidental College, has published in the top journals in her field and coauthored Rethinking Madame President: Are We Ready for a Woman in the White House? She has been active in politics as a congressional staffer, campaign manager, campaign consultant, and political activist. She works in a leadership position with Common Ground, a New Orleans-based grassroots relief organization, and is the cofounder of Critical Response, a group that provides volunteers to engage in high-risk rescue efforts during crises and disasters. Heldman has worked as the general manager for Bio-Energy Systems, a research manager for Consumer Health Sciences, a political reviewer for the Associated Press and as a reporter for KPFK Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and U.S. News and World Report. See also her recent TED talk “The Sexy Lie”: Caroline Heldman at TEDxYouth@SanDiego (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMS4VJKekW8).

Danielle Dirks is an assistant professor of sociology at Occidental College. Her recent work has focused on the American death penalty (How Ethical Systems Change: Lynching and Capital Punishment, Routledge, 2011). Her dissertation examined the promise of ‘closure’ for victims’ loved ones as a contemporary rationale for capital punishment and was supported by the Donald D. Harrington Fellows Program.

A Lorwin Event

This is one of several related events in the 2013–2014 Lorwin Lecture Series. The Lorwin Lectureship on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is funded by a gift from Val and Madge Lorwin to the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences and School of Law.