Police Warnings and Sexual Violence: The Mobilization of the Garneau Sisterhood
2009/10 Inside/OUT Speakers’ Series

Thursday, January 7th, 5-6pm
Room 128 (1st floor), Education SOUTH building.
Presented by Dr. Lise Gotell, Professor, Women Studies, UofA

From the Facebook event page:
In 2008, a series of sexual assaults occurred in an Edmonton neighborhood bordering the University of Alberta. Edmonton police service did not release any information until three women living within a one-block radius were sexually assaulted by a man who broke into their homes in the middle of the night. After a fourth attack on an elderly woman in suburban middle class neighborhood, the police warnings intensified. All women “living alone” were advised to be vigilant, and “lock their doors and windows.” In response to these events, an anonymous group of neighborhood women calling themselves the Garneau Sisterhood mounted in a poster and media campaign. This campaign was marked by great irreverence and a Do-It-Yourself (DYI) style of activism that is characteristic of third wave feminism. It challenged and mocked the disciplinary and individualizing thrust of police warnings. In this talk, I explore the contemporary construction of sexual violence through technologies of risk management. In its creative and edgy challenge to risk management discourses the Garneau Sisterhood campaign stands as an example of the productive possibilities of contemporary grassroots antirape activism.

Check out this article in Express News or visit the website that comes up when you google the Sisterhood.