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Elizabeth Quinlan, Andrea Quinlan, Curtis Fogel, and Gail Taylor. (Eds.) Sexual Violence at Canadian Universities: Activism, Institutional Responses, and Strategies for Change. Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2017, 342 pp, $44.99 paper, (9781771122832).
Sexual Violence at Canadian Universities: Activism, Institutional Responses, and Strategies for Change is a welcome and much needed volume of analyses, accounts, and reflections upon the current climate at post-secondary institutions across Canada. Until now, the dearth of scholarly literature investigating sexual violence at Canadian post-secondary institutions has forced Canadian researchers to depend upon research situated in the US college context or more general sexual violence research in Canada to inform their work. Beginning from a firm stance that rape culture is pervasive problem in Canadian universities, Quinlan et al. bring together 15 chapters from academics, community developers, activists, and marginalized voices to unearth the nuances of the problem, document and revisit cases, and provide inspiration for the next generation.
The book is written with a language and structure that allows a wide-range of readers to easily access and understand the complex problems and arguments laid out by the authors. With a focus on qualitative research, personal experiences, and informed commentary the collection can act as both an entry point for the less-informed reader, while simultaneously presenting otherwise undocumented information for sexual violence scholars. Albeit the majority of the chapters confirm what experienced scholars already know or would expect, such as that what has been documented at US colleges is also happening at Canadian institutions. While feminist, Marxist, intersectional, anti-colonial and anti-neoliberal thought broadly serve as the intellectual foundation for the book, these theories and the scholars who developed them are not...