Prevention Education, Assistance & Resources (PEAR)

SAPAC offers prevention education for students, confidential support for survivors, and collaborates with others through trainings, programs, and innovative community engagement strategies to collectively create a campus free from violence.

Moving the Needle: Shifting the Conversation around Sexual Harassment

Part research presentation, part embodied case study, and part community conversation, Moving the Needle: Shifting the Conversation around Sexual Harassment challenges participants to expand their understanding of what sexual harassment is, how it impacts individuals and communities and what makes an environment ripe for its presence. Using the NASEM consensus study report as both grounding and springboard, this session eschews a “tips and tricks” workshop model, instead pointing attendees toward the ongoing reflective practices that individuals and communities will need to commit to in order to address the culturally embedded problem of sexual harassment. This session is best suited to full-unit conversations including faculty, staff and graduate students.

The typical session length is 120 minutes. Moving the Needle: Shifting the Conversation around Sexual Harassment can be offered as a synchronous, virtual session or an in-person session.

U-M made a commitment to enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion in 2016. As part of this effort, Organizational Learning continues to develop long-term educational strategies and interventions for university-wide culture change initiatives. This includes diversity, equity and inclusion and sexual and gender-based misconduct. We coordinate with partners across the Ann Arbor, Flint and Dearborn campuses and Michigan Medicine to support the building and maintenance of a respectful, inclusive and equitable learning and working environment. We provide training and skill development opportunities to help create a community where people’s differences contribute to further learning and advancements in all fields of study and patient care. In addition, we provide education and training programs to eliminate sexual and gender-based misconduct.

This initiative is composed of an interdisciplinary group of scholars across the University of Michigan. This group coalesced in 2017 out of a desire to better understand the enduring problem of gender-based violence. In May 2018, they sponsored a Michigan Meeting to bring together researchers, activists, students and community-based organizations.

Now operating as a research initiative in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG), the group continues to promote interdisciplinary engagement with a particular focus on work that encourages practitioner-scholar collaboration on gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

Request a Spectrum Center Workshop

Interested in expanding your knowledge of LGBTQ+ identities and topics? Want to find ways to improve your allyhood? Our Education & Training team works with students, faculty, and community members who may or may not identify in LGBTQ+ community, to discuss best practices when creating and maintaining spaces open to LGBTQ+ identified individuals.

Introduction to LGBTQIA2S+ Communities and Identities was developed and published by the University of Michigan Spectrum Center with two goals in mind: expand our current educational offerings and provide a way to teach fundamental LGBTQIA2S+ terms and topics outside of our workshops.

In this course we provide an overview of terms and topics related to gender, sexuality, and marginalization, with a focus on terms relevant to LGBTQIA2S+ communities. We also aim to disrupt misinformation you may have encountered, or even internalized, about LGBTQIA2S+ people. Our hope is that everyone will find value in this course.

This course is just a starting point. It is designed to complement classroom learning and additional professional development opportunities related to diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging. Participation in this course is voluntary, unless you are completing it prior to attending one of our more advanced educational workshops.

This course is focused on vocabulary and core concepts. It is important to note that language related to identity is complicated, culturally-bound, and ever-evolving. Language is often highly contested. Although the frames and definitions we provide were carefully researched, rigorously discussed, and thoughtfully crafted, they are not universal. Again, this course is a starting point. We hope this is just a part of your learning journey about gender, sexuality, and LGBTQIA2S+ identities.