At this moment of global pandemic, public health is more visible than ever. But public health’s core mission – to build communities in which everyone can thrive – extends beyond infectious diseases. Join PWN of NYC to hear Jennifer S. Hirsch, ’88 and Elizabeth M. Armstrong *93, discussing Hirsch’s groundbreaking coauthored new book (with Shamus Khan), which applies a public health optic to campus sexual assault: Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power and Assault on Campus (coauthored with Shamus Khan, published by WW Norton and featured recently in PAW). 

Sexual Citizens is transforming how people understand and address the most misunderstood problem on college campuses: widespread sexual assault. Drawing on their extended research on the Columbia and Barnard campuses, Hirsch and Khan present intimate portraits of life and sex among students in a way that pulls back the curtain on what it is like to be in college today. They present an entirely new way to understand sexual assault, focusing on its social roots. Their insights transcending current debates about consent, predators in a “hunting ground,” or the dangers of hooking up. Sexual Citizens points to what everyone – parents, K-12 schools, faith-based organizations, elected officials, and institutions of higher education – can do to reduce the risk of sexual assault, in college and more generally.

Participants should be advised that Hirsch and Armstrong’s discussion of Sexual Citizens will include descriptions of actual sexual assaults, as students recounted them.