Mobilizing, Resisting, and Transforming Title IX: How College Students Experience Sexual Violence and Administrative Justice

Abstract

This dissertation examines the contentious policy and implementation of Title IX on U.S. college campuses amidst debates regarding due process, restorative justice, and definitions of sexual misconduct. The articles in this dissertation offer a nuanced cultural analysis of Title IX, critically exploring the law’s interaction with gender, power, and violence. Drawing on qualitative data from 42 public statements made by students sanctioned for sexual misconduct and 31 interviews with undergraduate students and Title IX professionals in higher education, I examine the legal consciousness of students and professionals as legal subjects under Title IX. By observing what students and professionals say about sexual violence, justice, and their experiences with Title IX policies, I theorize how their collective and contentious understandings of the law present an overview of the legal culture of Title IX, revealing the complexities of its application in addressing sexual violence on college campuses.In the three articles of this dissertation, I examine three phenomena regarding the interpretation and implementation of Title IX—disciplined students’ resistance to Title IX, how universities define sexual violence within a civil Title IX framework, and restorative justice as an alternative to punitive resolution processes. The research on the resistance to Title IX by those sanctioned for sexual misconduct illustrates how disciplined students mobilize entrenched rape myths and legal liberalism simultaneously to subvert accountability and shift policy in favor of their interests. Investigation into the processes by which sexual violence is defined and adjudicated by universities highlights the impact of intuitional policies on victims. My analysis of students’ and professionals’ legal consciousness and lived experiences reveals how institutionalized definitions of “sexual assault,” “complainants,” and “respondents” shaped students’ experiences of harm and justice through Title IX. My exploration of restorative justice as an alternative to more punitive measures of Title IX shows the challenges of integrating this approach within existing Title IX legal culture. Dominant punitive and criminal discourse overshadow restorative practice, limiting the ability of colleges and universities to provide transformative solutions to the root causes of sexual harm and inequality. This dissertation presents these themes together and highlights the importance of examining Title IX through a cultural lens. It suggests that a more profound understanding of the law's efficacy in fostering gender equality and preventing violence requires critically reflecting on the cultural narratives and power dynamics that define legal discourse. The dissertation contends that the legal culture of Title IX both reproduces systemic inequality and is a site for potential transformative change.