Sounds About White: A Critical Content Analysis of Collegiate Gender-Based Violence Research in Top-Tier Journals

Sounds About White: A Critical Content Analysis of Collegiate Gender-Based Violence Research in Top-Tier Journals Larry M. Locke and Olivia M. Copeland (bio) Gender-based violence (GBV) is a broad umbrella term for many forms of violence directed at individuals based on gender and includes unwelcomed sexual contact (e.g., rape, voyeuristic behavior), stalking, threats, physical violence, economic harm, heavy flattery to control another person, or any combination of these behaviors (Linder, 2017). GBV is understood as an issue of power and control (Russo & Pirlott, 2006). Studies have shown that traditional college students (ages 18–24) affected by GBV report lower grades and higher dropout rates than their peers (Baynard et al., 2020; Mengo & Black, 2016). Authors of GBV research often implicitly center their work on whiteness (Harris, 2017), which is particularly problematic in that scholarship that does not name and discuss the connections between racial and sexual violence leads to “incomplete and ineffective strategies for eradicating sexual violence” (Linder, 2017, p. 60). Centering research on white students creates a divide in campuses’ abilities to support and respond to all student’s needs related to GBV, a serious representation of systemic racism. This study examined and quantified how race has been discussed in GBV-related research published in top-tier higher education (HE) journals. Intersectionality asserts social identities (e.g., ability, class, race) are “interconnected and operate simultaneously to produce experiences of both privilege and marginalization” (Smooth, 2013, p. 11). All those touched by GBV are not homogeneous, yet much of the scholarship on collegiate GBV presents them as such. We focus on top-tier peer-reviewed journals because of the prestige rewarded for publishing in those outlets and the isomorphism of HE in general, meaning all journals are likely to manage themselves in ways that mirror top-tier journals (Bray & Major, 2011; Fay & Zavattaro, 2016). Viewing this isomorphism in relation to the racist bias that undergirds and shapes much of the publication process (Stanley, 2007), we sought to understand how the most influential journals in HE might contribute to the homogenization of collegiate GBV research. In contemplating and implementing this project, Larry, a cis man, and Olivia, a non-binary person, felt responsible for resisting and naming the prevalence of race-neutral narratives within GBV work. Both authors are white, queer, doctoral students, and survivors. Larry came to the project with extensive experience in GBV prevention work from multiple institutional types and as a staff member for the [End Page 594] Journal of College Student Development. Olivia came with general student affairs knowledge and academic training regarding race. Our intention for this research project was to call in those involved in the creation and publication of collegiate GBV research to resist the prevalence of race-neutral narratives and consider a more intersectional approach. METHOD We used critical content analysis (CCA) as our methodology. CCA explores the content of samples by locating the power in social practices to challenge inequality (Short, 2017). We initially used Horkenheimer’s critical theory as it pays particular attention to imagining ways to move society toward equity, but critical race theory (CRT), which emerged as a challenge to the color-blindness of general critical theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017), also influenced our analysis. We analyzed 22 articles published between 2010 and 2022 in six top-tier HE journals. Hyle et al. (2005) provided a list of top-tier HE journals. One journal (Academe) was removed as it is not peer-reviewed. The remaining journals included Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, and Teachers College Record. As language related to GBV can be broad, using key terms to find relevant articles to review would limit our sample. Thus, we found articles by reading the table of contents for each journal, reading abstracts if they were present, and pulling all articles related to GBV. In our initial review of each article, we documented the racial makeup in samples, the author’s position, their field of study, and finally, the identity type of institutions sampled (e.g., HBCU, PWI). We created two categories for predominantly white institutions (PWIs): explicit and implicit. Explicit PWIs were...