ABSTRACT

In October 2017, Raya Sarkar, a 24-year-old law student from India, posted a crowdsourced list on Facebook of male Indian academics who allegedly harassed women. This led to the start of the #MeToo movement in India, where universities became key spaces of discussion, debate and activism. Due to failures of both the criminal justice system and the described capitalist, patriarchal, casteist structures of Indian academia, hundreds of survivors who had experienced sexual violence at universities came forward online, disclosing their stories of harassment and abuse. Drawing from interviews with seven sexual violence survivors who disclosed their experiences online, this paper provides insight into reasons why survivors choose to bypass formal reporting mechanisms in HEIs, and instead turn to online spaces in their search for justice and healing. We argue that students are wary of university processes and often seek alternative forms of justice beyond the ‘punishment’ that HEIs are often unable or unwilling to provide. As such, this article provides compelling empirical evidence of the urgent need for universities to adopt survivor-centred approaches in their processes and conceptualization of justice, as well as how online spaces enable healing, catharsis and new means of informal justice.

摘要

2017 年 10 月，来自印度的 24 岁法学院学生拉亚·萨卡 (Raya Sarkar) 在 Facebook 上发布了一份据称骚扰女性的男性印度学者的众包名单。这导致了印度#MeToo 运动的开始，大学成为讨论、辩论和行动主义的关键场所。由于刑事司法系统和印度学术界所描述的资本主义、父权制、种姓主义结构的失败，数百名在大学经历过性暴力的幸存者在网上站出来，披露了他们的骚扰和虐待故事。本文通过对七名在网上披露其经历的性暴力幸存者的采访，深入探讨了幸存者为何选择绕过高等教育机构的正式报告机制，转而求助于在线空间寻求正义和康复的原因。我们认为，学生对大学程序持谨慎态度，并经常寻求超越高等教育机构通常无法或不愿提供的“惩罚”的替代形式的正义。因此，本文提供了令人信服的经验证据，证明大学迫切需要在其过程和正义概念化中采用以幸存者为中心的方法，以及在线空间如何实现治愈、宣泄和非正式正义的新手段。