Lindsay Ostridge’s research while affiliated with University of Ottawa and other places

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Publications (4)


Sexual violence, secrets, and work: Ruling relations of campus sexual violence policy
  • Article

January 2025

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5 Reads

Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie

Lindsay Ostridge

Campus sexual violence complaints involving students might seem easy to record and report, but university campuses in North America have a culture of secrecy and tend to focus on neoliberal approaches. In this paper, I trace the genealogy of a sexual violence policy from an unnamed university to argue that ruling relations make the current provincially mandated stand‐alone sexual violence policies into a performative tool that silences expert knowledges, coordinates institutional practices towards a particular type of sexual violence prevention, and re‐inforces a broader neoliberal logic in higher education. I explore my argument in the following three sections: the social organization of the policy and prevention campaign, the rules and regulations of the policy, and the neoliberalism of the current sexual violence discourse. As my analytical framework, I draw on Dorothy Smith's social ontology, which aims to investigate the practices and experiences of people by focusing on work and bodily existence as key points of reference. Drawing upon in‐depth semi‐structured interviews I conducted with fourteen participants (and one email exchange) at an unnamed Ontario university, I analyze how variously positioned people within an institutional structure negotiate relations of ruling in the specific context of campus sexual violence.


Entitled young men and powerless young women: an examination of how police and post-secondary school personnel view survivors and campus sexual violence

March 2024

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57 Reads

Journal of Gender-Based Violence

The police, campus security, and post-secondary school officials continue to pose challenges to student survivors who require guidance and resources from their institutions after experiencing sexual violence. Recently, the provincial government of Ontario, Canada, mandated that all post-secondary institutions in Ontario adopt some form of a stand-alone sexual violence policy for their campuses. Yet, little is known about how post-secondary schools have implemented this mandate. This article explores the perspectives of individuals responsible for responding to sexual violence on campus through interviews with post-secondary school officials and police officers. We examine how they understood and discussed sexual violence responses on campus. More specifically, we examine whether these understandings draw on carceral or anti-carceral frameworks. Utilising a critical feminist anti-carceral approach, we explore ways that the current responses on campus to sexual violence are problematic.


Speaking Freely and Freedom of Speech: Why is Black Feminist Thought Left Out of Ontario University Sexual Violence Policies?

December 2020

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18 Reads

Atlantis Critical Studies in Gender Culture & Social Justice

As of January 1, 2017, the Province of Ontario has required all post-secondary institutions to create and maintain a stand-alone sexual assault policy that includes clearly stated complaint and response procedures. This paper brings to bear the influence of Black feminist thought as an analytic tool and politic on the outcomes and omissions of the development of these policies. Analyzing the stand-alone sexual violence policy of the University of Ottawa as a case study, the author conducted a critical discourse analysis with an intersectional lens to determine if intersectionality influenced the policy creation. Findings reveal that policymakers conceptualize gender in a one-dimensional manner, without attention to intersections of sexualized violence with racism and other systems of oppression. A policy with an ill-defined focus on gender can result in a colorblind policy that suggests that the institution should treat all students the same, regardless of systemic disadvantages they might face on the basis of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, or ability. This avoidance can create barriers to reporting. Neoliberalism and the changing university culture are discussed.


Reporting Unwanted Sexual Behaviour at a Post-Secondary Institution: Student Understandings of Campus Policy
  • Article
  • Full-text available

January 2020

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314 Reads

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1 Citation

Canadian Journal of Family and Youth / Le Journal Canadien de Famille et de la Jeunesse

The Ontario government recently mandated all universities and colleges in Ontario, Canada to create a sexual violence policy that involves student input. Using a small commuter university in southwestern Ontario as a case study, this article examined student perceptions of an existing university sexual violence policy. More specifically, we conducted online qualitative research with seventeen students using an open-ended inductive, exploratory instrument. We asked students to read and define aspects of their university’s sexual violence policy in their own words. The objective of this research was to examine if students adequately comprehended the language of the policy, how to report, who to report to, feel safe reporting, and whether or not they find the reporting process supportive of their needs. Also discussed are student recommendations for what they would like to see in university sexual violence policies.

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Citations (1)


... The negative experiences reported by those who chose to open cases, confirmed these perceived barriers, including long delays, discouragement from police, disparaging behavior of police, victim-blaming, lack of communication with the victim about the case progress and police homosexual intolerance. These barriers and negative experiences could be the reason why some studies have suggested that men are reluctant to report a rape to police or are less likely to report rape than females [51][52][53]. ...

Reference:

“They all laughed and asked me if I enjoyed having sex with those guys”: Exploring men’s lived experiences when reporting rape to police in South Africa
Reporting Unwanted Sexual Behaviour at a Post-Secondary Institution: Student Understandings of Campus Policy

Canadian Journal of Family and Youth / Le Journal Canadien de Famille et de la Jeunesse