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“Carrying their stories”: The experience of active listening at Concordia’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre

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“Carrying their stories”: The experience of active listening at Concordia’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre

Ilacqua, Samantha (2019) “Carrying their stories”: The experience of active listening at Concordia’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre. Masters thesis, Concordia University.

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Abstract

Although the pervasiveness of sexual violence on Canadian university campuses is becoming a common feature of news stories, the sociological literature only addresses some elements of the problem. While the rates and roots of sexual violence are well known – as is its impact on those who survive it – less knowledge has been produced regarding the support of survivors. Scholars have demonstrated that supporting survivors is key to their healing (Ahrens, 2006; Ahrens et al., 2007; Ullman & Filipas, 2001), and that the presence of high quality support services on campus is associated with a greater likelihood that survivors will maintain academic performance and seek out healthy coping mechanisms (Campbell et al., 2001). However, university-funded support services – especially those that target sexual violence specifically – are not widely-established, and thus are a new entity on many university campuses. Due to the steady increase of university corporatization since 2008/2009, the financial resources necessary for implementing such services are often either nonexistent or allocated elsewhere (Newson & Polster, 2015). Consequently, very little research has examined the support side of sexual violence, and no prior research – to my knowledge – has been conducted on on-campus support. Yet, there is a great deal of insight to be gained from the experiences of those who professionally support survivors of sexual violence. This thesis helps to fill that dearth in the literature by drawing on the results of a qualitative research project involving auto-ethnographic participant observation, and interviews with social workers and volunteers working in Concordia University’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre.

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Sociology and Anthropology
Item Type:Thesis (Masters)
Authors:Ilacqua, Samantha
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:M.A.
Program:Sociology
Date:15 July 2019
Thesis Supervisor(s):Lafrance, Marc
Keywords:sexual violence sexual assault university support emotional labour
ID Code:985584
Deposited By: SAMANTHA ILACQUA
Deposited On:15 Nov 2019 16:39
Last Modified:15 Nov 2019 16:39

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