Campus Connection

Kate Parker to lead discussion on the impact of rape culture April 5

One of the most insidious and pernicious myths perpetuated by campus rape culture is that women are not thinking, feeling subjects, but merely objects of attraction, fascination and exploitation, says Kate Parker, UW-La Crosse assistant professor of English. [caption id="attachment_48340" align="alignleft" width="200"] Kate Parker, UWL assistant professor of English.[/caption] Parker will lead a TEDxUWLa Crosse Salon presentation and discussion during the university’s Social Justice Week, “After: Rape culture, feminism and the limits of representation,” from 2-3:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, at the Institute for Campus Excellence, 150 Murphy Library. The event is part of the TEDxUWLa Crosse Salon Series. At a TEDx Salon, attendees watch TED Talks, listen to speakers, and have discussions about the talks they witnessed. Salons re-engage the audience in the presentation model through the critical element of lively discussions, allowing attendees to actively participate in the event and shape the conversation. Parker will explore how inclusive feminism has demanded, and continues to demand, dignity and respect for all persons. She’ll also explore how feminist scholarship and pedagogy has worked to combat rape culture in higher education, and how theory can engage practice in the classroom and beyond. Participants will watch several videos that address the impact of rape in a global context, in relationship to masculinity and rape culture, and as an intersectional phenomenon. Participants will then collaborate on developing possible models to compassionately address gender violence at UWL. The videos, presentation and conversation all contain potentially triggering elements. Staff from UWL’s Counseling and Testing Center will be on hand. To request disability accommodations, contact the TEDxUWLaCrosse Organizing Committee at tedx@uwlax.edu. For more information on this and other TEDxUWLaCrosse events, visit www.uwlax.edu/TEDxUWLaCrosse About Kate Parker Kate Parker studies 18th-century British and French literature and teaches courses in literature, critical theory, feminism and sexuality studies at UWL. She has also been active in the sexual assault awareness movement since she was 19, as a college student, a SART (sexual assault responder) in the City of St. Louis, a campus sexual assault advocate and now as a member of UWL’s Violence Prevention Committee. Parker also co-advises the university’s Rise Above Rape Coalition.