The online survey has been broadened to include other field-based sciences, Dr. Clancy said. It remains open until May 10.
I (Sandra speaking) receive reports of abuse in the University realm because of the work I do. I will ensure that people I know are alerted to this survey (page 1 of the survey is appended). I hope you will, too.
I have thought of a web-page where affected people in Canada could anonymously tell their experience. Maybe this is a better, or a first step?
It is an extremely serious situation on University campuses, intolerable. It needs to be addressed. Young people should be safe in their studies, and the University should be a model for integrity.
RELATED: 2013-04-18 Saskatchewan Senator reflects on racism and discrimination (Senator Lillian Dyck continues to play a supporting role for persons subjected to exploitative behaviour in the University.)
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Hi, Sandra, Saturday morning, and I have been reading the Globe and Mail which contains an article on students and abuse, particularly sexual abuse, in particular at field sites.
Power differentials between mentors and students and the abuse of power underlies that form of abuse, as well as the plagiarism and research integrity offences in my opinion.
(INSERT: reference to such things as professors who publish student research as their own, with no acknowledgement to the student. The students are often quite powerless to have the matter addressed, for obvious reasons.)
Professor Kathryn Clancy professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois is doing research involving an on-line blog.
She recommends reform of codes of ethics to reign in the problem.
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THE GLOBE & MAIL ARTICLE
IVAN SEMENIUK – SCIENCE REPORTER
The Globe and Mail
As the academic year winds down, scores of anthropology students across the country are preparing for an important ritual: heading off to a remote location to conduct research in the field.
For many, the chance to dig for fossils in a far corner of the globe or observe primates in the wild is a dream come true – a coveted, even essential step on the road to an academic career.
But for some, the opportunity can become an unhappy ordeal, filled with experiences that range from feelings of exclusion by colleagues to harassment, abuse and, in extreme cases, sexual assault.
So says a team of U.S. researchers behind an online survey on anthropology fieldwork experiences. Several Canadians have responded to the confidential survey, which has been advertised through social media and anthropology websites. Initial findings were presented last month at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
“It’s not that people don’t know about it, it’s that we’ve all felt really powerless to know what to do about it,” said Kathryn Clancy, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who led the survey.
Prof. Clancy said she was alerted to the issue when a friend told of being raped at a field site – and the barriers she encountered when seeking action.
Once Prof. Clancy began exploring the subject in blog posts, “the floodgates opened,” she said, as more people sought her out to relate their experiences. Together with three colleagues, she decided a more systematic approach was needed to determine what factors might make a given anthropological field site more likely to be a risky venue for students and young scientists.
The team has received 536 responses in less than three months since the survey began, with a smaller number participating in follow-up phone interviews.
In a preliminary analysis of the first 124 responses, nearly 60 per cent said they had experienced inappropriate or sexual remarks while working at an anthropological field site, while 18 per cent said they had experienced physical sexual harassment or unwanted sexual contact – in some cases up to and including rape. The harassment was reported by both men and women, with younger female researchers the most frequent victims.
By design, the survey could not address the question of how prevalent such incidents may be. Nevertheless, Prof. Clancy said, the survey suggests the profession needs to address the issue.
“It highlights the need to bring this out into the open,” said Katherine MacKinnon, a primatologist at Saint Louis University. Dr. MacKinnon added that among the survey’s more disturbing findings is that a victim is more likely to be harassed by a superior than by a peer or someone unaffiliated with the academic work at a site.
“Power differentials between mentors and students and the abuse of power is something we should all be thinking about,” said Tina Moffat, president of the Canadian Association of Physical Anthropologists and an associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
Dr. Moffat said harassment in the field has not been an issue on the association’s agenda thus far, but added that “we will consider it this summer” when the association puts together an ethics statement for its members.
Most researchers and graduate students in anthropology will spend time working at field sites or at field schools over the course of their training, but Canadian anthropology departments vary in how much they prepare students and staff for potential problems in the field. Some have developed safety protocols that specifically cover inappropriate behaviour. Others consider field sites to be an extension of the campus and governed by the same code of conduct. However, this may not equip young researchers to deal with problems they encounter at sites that are not run by their home institutions.
In their survey, Dr. Clancy and her colleagues found that inappropriate behaviour was more likely to arise at smaller, less formal work sites where codes of conduct might not be spelled out or enforced.
“Figuring out how to make really transparent reporting procedures at all field sites would be a possible next step,” said Heather Shattuck-Heidorn, a graduate student in human evolutionary biology at Harvard University who chaired the session at which Dr. Clancy presented her findings.
Yet there are signs that those who experience or are aware of harassment are inhibited about reporting it because doing so could jeopardize their careers. Prof. Clancy described the toll on one male researcher who was interviewed for the survey: “It was almost unbearable for him because he had witnessed such systematic sexual assault at his site and for years had not spoken up because he was so afraid that his dissertation would be shut down.”
The online survey has been broadened to include other field-based sciences, Dr. Clancy said. It remains open until May 10.
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https://illinois.edu/sb/sec/34550
THE ON-LINE SURVEY
Thank you for your interest in our survey. The Biological Anthropology Field Experiences Web Survey is designed to solicit input on the ways in which fieldwork does or does not provide a safe scholarly and research environment for all. Rather than determining the total number of instances, or percentage risk of a negative experience, our interest is in gathering stories to inform Field Directors, faculty mentors, and other researchers on the scope of the problem, and identify some of the main contributory factors to a negative environment, both to encourage improvement and to identify future areas for research.
What you will do
By hitting “next,” you give informed consent to participate in our internet survey. Please answer these questions to the best of your ability. You can decide to end participation at any time, or not answer certain questions. We will keep your responses anonymous and your identities confidential to only the four principal investigators listed below. In any in person, in print, or on line reporting, publishing, or presenting of the data we collect from this survey all personal identifiers will be expunged. This survey and the server on which we will be storing your results are data encrypted, in order to ensure your answers are safe with us.
In order to confirm identities and make sure participants only fill out the survey once, we will ask for your email address and you will get a confirmation of completion of your survey at that address. We are interested in following up by phone with a random sub-sample of participants to hear your stories, and if you indicate you would be willing to be considered, we will additionally ask you to check a box so that we can initiate contact. You will also have the chance to check a box at the conclusion of the study to enter you into a lottery for a 1:10 chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card. You can check this box regardless of how much or how little of the survey you completed.
Risks
Please note that we will be asking about sexual harassment or assault experiences you may have had in the past, albeit in a general way. These questions may be triggering, and stimulation of these memories may make you uncomfortable. If you are at all worried that thinking about or sharing your experiences about sexual harassment or assault would be too mentally harmful, do not continue with this survey.
Benefits
We hope the results of this research will stimulate a broader conversation about mentoring, fieldwork, and support of students and peers. We believe this research has enormous benefit to the discipline, as creating a safer space for research will encourage more diverse people to pursue science, and more diverse perspectives.
For more information
This human subjects research was approved by the University of Illinois Institutional Review Board. If you have any questions about this project, please contact the primary investigator Dr. Kathryn Clancy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, at 217-244-1509 or via email at kclancy@illinois.edu.
If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this study or any concerns or complaints, please contact the University of Illinois Institutional Review Board at 217-333-2670 (collect calls will be accepted if you identify yourself as a research participant) or via email at irb@illinois.edu.
Again, thank you so much for your willingness to participate in our project.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Clancy, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Katie Hinde, Assistant Professor, Harvard University Robin Nelson, Assistant Professor, University of California Riverside Julienne Rutherford, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago
Janet writes:
Thanks for this Sandra- shocking- but not surprizing – male sexualized culture has become one of impunity. Good work to take it to U of S!
I’ve sent it along to my global sisterhood network list which focuses mostly on violence against women- and it is so rampant now all over the world that one wonders how it can ever be contained short of a collapse of globalization and its commodification of women’s and young girls’ bodies and a return to the local where it is easier to instill universal values and keep men occupied in meaningful jobs, not to mention the need to deal with the sexualized content of social media.
And a militarized culture such as we’ve experienced in Canada under Harper doesn’t help given the training received historically – hopefully better today although not in US – read today that sexual violenc in american military is up considerably over last year’s stats by about 3,250 cases and three days ago the head of sexual abuse training for Air Force was found drunk in a parking lot fondling a woman’s breasts and buttocks – Obama has responded in no uncertain terms – hopefully he stays on the file.