Survivor-Faculty and the Lived Experience of Disclosure

Abstract

Faculty members perform essential roles on campuses, including teaching, research, and service, yet norms of the academic profession inhibit faculty from bringing their full selves to the work. Revealing vulnerabilities, such as identifying as a survivor of sexual violence, is generally unwelcome in the neoliberal postsecondary landscape. This critical phenomenological exploration of 15 survivor-faculty across a wide variety of disciplines revealed the complex decision-making inherent in disclosure, and the costs and benefits of doing so. Power-consciousness circulated throughout the narratives of survivor-faculty, both their own power and power held by others. These findings advance both the necessity and urgency of centering survivor-faculty in the ongoing work of changing campus cultures to end sexual violence.