Rape Culture on Campus

For those of us exhausted by the ineffectual and insincere efforts to contain the problem of sexual assault on our college and university campuses, Meredith Minister’s Rape Culture on Campus is a welcome reprieve. Minister’s book is written for an audience of academics, in our native language (that of Bourdieu, Edelman, and Ahmed), but recognizes this audience as one deeply in need of both analytical and pedagogical practices that resist rape culture. To this end, Minister deploys the work of feminist, womanist, queer, crip theorists to re-frame the issue, one that is all too often reduced to compensatory damages. Using her background in Religious and Theological studies, Minister effectively situates the problem as an outgrowth of the cultures of purity and law enforcement that remain ignored. Coercion, sexism, and religion, she argues, maintain the culture of violence that animates rape culture on campus. Beyond her astute assessment of the problem, Minister provides her readers with concrete approaches to institutional policies and pedagogical practices that offer a vision of higher education that can not only prevent, but resist the foundational and practical entrenchment of rape culture. For anyone concerned about their students, survivors of sexual assault, and the integrity of institutions of higher education, Rape Culture on Campus is essential reading material. -- Sara Moslener, Central Michigan University