Winona State University students presented their work with bystander intervention and sexual violence prevention on college campuses at the Women’s Studies Association 2015 Conference Nov. 12-15 in Milwaukee, Wis.
Kyler Steffe, Jacob Stock, Emily Homan and Sarah Swanson presented on their paper “The Precarity of Safety: Bystander Intervention Praxis as a Challenge to Systemic Violence on Campus” and work with WSU’s PACT peer program against sexual assault and rape in a college community.
Through their work to stop gender-based violence, the students and the PACT peer program reached 1,902 students in 2014. Students who participate in the 2.5-hour PACT training have reported that the peer educators have effectively reduced the acceptance of rape myths and increased confidence in peers’ abilities to safely intervene in a situation.
Tamara Berg, Director of the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at WSU, said the opportunity to present is rare for students at this conference.
“This national conference has a record of being very selective during the review process, and it is impressive that this student-led research was accepted,” Berg said.
For more information, contact Berg at TBerg@winona.edu.
