Community Accountability in the Face of Sexual Violence

As members of the Williams community, we are all presented with opportunities to contribute to an environment that supports and validates survivors, discourages sexual violence, and prioritizes justice in the aftermath of perpetration. The issue of sexual violence must be addressed using a variety of strategies at the interpersonal, communal, and institutional level if it going to be meaningfully addressed.

Our student body contains people who have perpetrated and who have experienced harm. For survivors, it has never been optional to acknowledge the occurrence of intimate violence on our campus. But we are all stakeholders in how our community prevents and responds to sexual violence. Most Williams students will encounter situations – as friends, team captains, student leaders, JAs, etc. – that call on us to navigate the reality of sexual violence. Because of this, it is vital to consider our accountability as students and acknowledge our missteps as a community while also capitalizing on our opportunities to make positive change.

In this event, RASAN, in collaboration with other members of the community, seeks to facilitate nuanced consideration of individual and communal accountability in the face of sexual violence. How do we create supportive and safe social environments? How do we show up for survivors within our communities? How do we hold our friends and peers accountable? How do we acknowledge and deal with sexual violence in the different spaces that we occupy? How do we advocate for change?

The event will begin with a panel of speakers who will offer experiential, institutional, and transformative justice informed insights into the current reality of institutional policy and cultural practice around sexual violence at Williams. We will then break into small groups where we will engage in more specific discussion about community accountability based on the interests and needs of attendees.

2:00 to 3:30 PM in Griffin 3. Co-sponsored by the Williams College Rape and Sexual Assault Network (RASAN).