Deconstructing Rape

Legal scholar Deborah Tuerkheimer discusses her book, Credible , as well as her legal scholarship on sexual violence and her efforts to reform the Model Penal Code.

Journalist, editor, writer, and crime fiction authority Sarah Weinman, who currently writes the monthly crime and mystery column for the New York Times Book Review , discusses her third non-fiction book, Without Consent: A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime.

Smith College Sociology Professor Nancy Whittier provides a social movement analysis to understand child sexual abuse, the antirape movement, feminism, and our post #MeToo moment

Feminist Criminologist, Regent's Professor, and Anti-rape Activist Cassia Spohn discusses her more than 50 years of advocating for and assessing the impact of rape law reform and the failures of the criminal justice system.

MIchelle Bowdler discusses her book, Is Rape a Crime? A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto   and her experience moving from victim to survivor to activist.  She provides a powerful critique of how police continue to fail to investigate and mistreat victims of sexual assault.

Amy Vorenberg, Jessica Durkis-Stokes, and Jessica Chandler Brown talk about their new textbook on rape law.

University of Windsor Distinguished Professor of Psychology Charlene Senn discusses her innovative and shockingly effective 12-hour empowerment self-defense program EAAA and its dissemination worldwide.

Leading feminist legal theorist and torts law expert Martha Chamallas explains E. Jean Carroll verdict and other recent developments in rape law.

Legal strategist Morgan Lamandre analyses the progress of rape reform in Louisiana.

University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Rebecca Campbell reflects on the campaign to test and investigate Detroit rape kits and her successful efforts to combat sexual violence at Michigan State University.

Sociologist Nicole Bedera reports on her disturbing year-long participant observation of a large university’s Title IX office.

Survivor and leading anti-rape attorney Laura Dunn reflects on new legal obstacles to protecting students from sexual violence.

Political Science professor Sally J. Kenney introduces the podcast and describes her own journey to claiming the identity of survivor.

Terrorism scholar Jessica Stern turns her investigative powers on her past, her father, and herself to uncover the identity of the serial rapist who raped her when she was sixteen and the individuals and institutions complicit in his crimes.

World War II historian Ray Douglas talks about the aftermath of the publication of his rape memoir and how his experience shaped his research on rape, particularly of men, in armed conflict.

Professor Tanya Serisier draws on her extensive knowledge of rape memoirs to craft her own narrative, inviting survivors to move beyond the constrained politics of speaking out to create a better context for listening.

Pioneering feminist law professor, lawyer, political operative, and columnist Susan Estrich reflects on how grappling with her own rape shaped her life and work.

Psychology professor Jennifer Freyd discusses how the unwanted disclosure of repressed memories shaped her research on betrayal trauma, institutional betrayal, and her policy activism to promote equality and institutional courage.

Feminist philosopher Susan Brison discusses how surviving first an acquaintance rape while studying abroad and then a violent stranger rape in France shaped her theories of embodiment and the self as well as her commitment to free speech.

Linda Martín Alcoff discusses how she and other survivors come to understand the impact of  sexual violence and deploys her philosophical expertise to deconstructs the espistemic injustices of philosophers such as Foucault.

Psychology professor David Lisak discusses his experience as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, his research on serial rapists, and his activism on campus, in the military, and with survivors on death row.

Political scientist Vanessa Tyson discusses speaking out against sexual violence, first against her father and then against Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax.