This event asks how we should conceive of consent, and how we can promote healthy sexual relationships and non-violence on our campus.

Perspectives on consent in sexual relationships have changed over time; recently, there has been a move away from ‘no means no’ to alternative conceptions including affirmative and enthusiastic consent. This has been a social, rather than legal, shift.

There continues to be a high rate of unwanted sex and sexual assault in our communities. ‘The Pledge’ campaign, run by the ANU Women’s Department and ANUSA this semester, invites participants to recognise that they are individual responsible for their own actions and have the capacity to make a choice not to be violent. This panel event aims to examine further how we can equip our university community to combat violence and encourage healthy sexual relationships.

Facilitator: Beth Ritchie, ANUSA Women's Officer 2013

Panel:

• Hannah McCann: Hannah is a PhD candidate at the ANU School of Sociology, conducting research on queer femme identity. She is the inaugural ANU Gender Institute PhD scholar. Hannah’s research interests include feminist theory, philosophy, culture and gender.
• Katrina Marson: Katrina is a graduate of ANU and former member of the ANU Women’s Department. Her Honours thesis in law was entitled ‘Grappling with Consent: to Know and to No” and examined why the criminal justice system alone cannot protect young Australians from unwanted sex. Katrina is a member of the Governance Committee of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre and works at the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions.
• Professor Richard Baker: Richard is the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Student Experience) at ANU. In this role, he works to enhance all aspects of student life, provides senior leadership of Halls and Residences and ensures high quality student access and equity policies and procedures.