Isolating Structures of Sexual Harassment in Crowdsourced Data on Higher Education

This analysis of Karen Kelsky’s (founder of a blog called The Professor Is In) crowdsourced data on sexual harassment in higher education describes the communication processes involved in the widespread isolation and “chilling effect” of inadequate structural responses to sexual harassment. Through the lens of structuration theory, the data demonstrate how communicative processes of isolation are appropriated throughout higher education. The analysis highlights two themes in the data that demonstrate the role of (1) networks and professionalization and (2) the structural estrangement from agency in the (re)production of isolation and organizational exit. Finally, the analysis identifies resignification and participation in the crowdsourced survey as potentially empowering acts of resistance.