The ASA Working Group on Harassment compiled this list of resources, which has been updated over time, to support efforts to better understand, prevent and respond to harassment.
Disciplinary Resources for Department Leaders
ASA Working Group on Harassment: Stopping Harassment in Your Department: A Resource for Department Chairs
ASA Working Group on Harassment: Best Practice Suggestions for Preventing Harassment and Other Abuses of Power in Your Department
Other Disciplinary Resources
Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) The Committee on Discrimination
Sociologists for Women in Society Faculty Under Attack
Sociologists for Trans Justice
Nationwide Resources
National Sexual Violence Resource Center maintains a directory of organizations, including state, territorial, and tribal anti-sexual assault coalitions and national allied organizations. The online directory highlights those organizations and projects working to eliminate sexual violence.
National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline (1-800-656-4673) operated by RAINN (Rape Abuse & Incest National Network) in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country.
National Women’s Law Center uses the law to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of us, especially women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families.
American Association of University Women Workplace Sexual Harassment provides information to support women in raising their voices about unwanted and unacceptable behavior that creates another barrier to their success at work.
American Association of University Professors Foundation Legal Defense Fund helps professors across the country in lawsuits involving legal issues of national significance in higher education.
The National Science Foundation provides Promising Practices for fostering harassment-free enviornments.
NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Culture of Respect: Ending Campus Sexual Violence Initiative builds the capacity of educational institutions to end sexual violence through ongoing, expansive organizational change.
ADVANCEGeo Partnership empowers geoscientists to transform workplace climate with resources that can be deployed for other disciplines.
Edge for Scholars: A Beginner’s Guide for Addressing Sexual Harassment in Academia outlines how personal support for survivors might go hand in hand with addressing cultural, structural and institutional responses to harassment and assault.
Guide to Allyship is an open source starter guide to help people become a more thoughtful and effective allies.
The Graduate Women in Science at the #SafeatWork Campaign is a call to arms.
RAINN Sexual Abuse of People with Disabilities seeks to help people understand the crime and how to get help.
Federal Government
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Sexual Harassment
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Sexual Violence Prevention Strategies
The U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women
The U.S. Department of Justice Protecting Students from Sexual Assault
Resources for Campus Leaders
Conventional sexual harassment training programs have not been shown to prevent harassment (EEOC 2017; NAS 2018; Tinkler 2018). Effective training programs focus on changing behavior rather than on changing beliefs and communicate clear expectations for behavior and sanctions/consequences for failing to meet expectations.
Bystander intervention training helps participants develop skills to interrupt and intervene when inappropriate behavior occurs.
Implicit bias training helps us understand our own hidden schemata and biases.
Self-defense/assertiveness training for students and faculty helps people respond in real time, negotiate conflict, and set professional boundaries.
Diversity and inclusion training fosters inclusive, equitable, respectful, and productive workplaces that support people with different backgrounds.
Civility training focuses on appropriate workplace behaviors and emphasizes respect of individual differences.
Invite the university’s Title IX coordinator (and ombudsperson) to a faculty meeting so that faculty better understand the Title IX office’s responsibilities and constraints.
Campus Resources (that may exist at your institution)
Campus Safety/Office of Public Safety
Campus Violence Prevention Office
Title IX Office/Coordinator
Campus Counseling Center or Mental Health Services
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Equal Employment Opportunity Office (EEO)
Human Resources Department
Office of the Ombudsperson
Office of the Dean of Students
Peer Support Services
Information for Campus Leaders
Workshops for Inclusion in the Workplace & Beyond, Smarts Consulting.
Dealing with Unethical or Illegal Conduct in Higher Education, Stanford University.
Beyond Diversity: Civility Training in the Workplace, Mark S. Nagy, PhD, September 3, 2018. Marcus Management.
Steps to Building a No-Tolerance Culture for Sexual Harassment, January 28, 2016. Earth & Space Science News.
Center for Changing Campus Culture
How Healthy Is Your Academic Department? February 28, 2018. Inside Higher Ed.
Enhancing Department Climate: A Guide for Department Chairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dealing with Dysfunctional Academic Departments, March 22, 2017. Inside Higher Ed.
Dealing with Dysfunction – A Book for University Leaders by Richard T. Castallo.
Prevention Innovations Research Center, University of New Hampshire.
National Resource Center: Creating Workplaces Free from Domestic Violence, Sexual Harassment & Violence, and Stalking.
Current Conversations in the Media
#MeToo and the Future of Sexual Harassment Law. June 18, 2018. The Yale Law Journal.
Anonymous Academic. 2017. “As a Young Academic, I was Repeatedly Sexually Harassed at Conferences.” December 1. The Guardian.
Azvolinsky, Anna. 2017. “Dealing with Unethical or Illegal Conduct in Higher Education.” November 11. The Scientist.
Bartlett, Tom and Nell Gluckman. 2018. “She Left Harvard. He Got to Stay.” February 27. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Blackstone, Amy. 2018. “Much Work Remains to End Workplace Harassment.” May 8. Bangor Daily News.
Cortina, L. M., Koss, M. P., and Cook, S. L. 2018. “What’s the Difference between Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment and Rape.” February 7. The Conversation.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 2016. “The Urgency of Intersectionality.” October. TEDWomen 2016.
Dobbin, Frank and Alexandra Kalev. 2017. “Training Programs and Reporting Systems Won’t End Sexual Harassment. Promoting More Women Will.” November 15. Harvard Business Review.
Eckart, Kim. 2021. “Sexual Harassment Claims Considered More Credible If Made by “Prototypical” Women.” January 14. University of Washington News.
Farley, Lin. 2017. “I Coined the Term ‘Sexual Harassment.’ Corporations Stole It.” October 18. The New York Times. (requires subscription)
Flaherty, Colleen. 2017. “Zero-Tolerance Mindset: In harassment cases, could institutions be cracking down on even big-name faculty members?” August 11. Inside Higher Ed.
Garland, James C. 2018. “What to Do When It’s Your Crisis.” January 26. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Giscombe, Katherine. 2018. “Sexual Harassment and Women of Color.” February 13. Catalyst Blog.
Gluckman, Nell. 2017. “What Happens When Sex Harassment Disrupts Victims’ Academic Careers.” December 6. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Gose, Ben. 2018. “How to Respond to Racist Incidents.” April 8. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Hager, Lisa. 2015. “Welcoming Trans Academics.” April 27. Inside Higher Ed.
Johnson, W. Brad and David G. Smith. 2017. “Too Many Men are Silent Bystanders to Sexual Harassment.” March 13. Harvard Business Review.
Jordan, Gabi. 2017. “Navigating Harassment as a Young Black Femme.” July 7. Inside Higher Ed.
Kelsky, Karen. 2017. “Dealing with Sexual Harassment Intersectionally.” December 24. The Professor Is In.
Kumar, Mohi. 2018. “Does Your Institution Foster a Culture of Sexual Harassment?” June 13. EOS.
Lu, Wendy. 2017. “I’m Disabled and I Get Sexually Harassed – Here’s Why That Matters.” November 1. Teen Vogue.
MacKinnon, Catherine A. 2018. “#MeToo Has Done What the Law Could Not.” February 4. The New York Times. (requires subscription)
Mangan, Katherine. 2018. “Why Male Mentors in the #MeToo Era Must ‘Engage More, Not Run for the Hills.’” June 6. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Marts, Sherry. 2017. “Is This Really Harassment?” August 2. Ask Dr. Smarts Blog.
Maurer, Sara L. 2018. “The #MeToo Movement Isn’t About Women’s Frailty. It’s About Women’s Labor.” January 7. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Miller, Claire Cain. 2017. “Sexual Harassment Training Doesn’t Work. But Some Things Do.” December 11. The New York Times. (requires subscription)
O’Donnell, Peggy. 2017. “The Sexism that Permeates the Academy.” October 17. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Quilantan, Bianca. 2018. “’I was in danger’: What happens when students harass professors.” March 30. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Rockquemore, Kerry Ann. 2016. “Allies and Microaggressions.” April 13. Inside Higher Ed.
Russell, Christine. 2017. “Confronting Sexual Harassment in Science.” October 27. Scientific American.
Serio, Tricia. 2018. “How Colleges and Organizations Can Stop the Cycle of Faculty Sexual Abuse.” June 26. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Shultz, Jackson Wright. 2017. “Supporting LGBTQI Survivors, Part I and Part II.” August 4/September 1. Inside Higher Ed.
Veletsianos, George and Jaigris Hodson. 2018. “Social Media as a Weapon to Harass Women Academics.” May 29. Inside Higher Ed.
Walker, Francis. 2017. “On Anti-Transgender Microaggressions.” July 7. Inside Higher Ed.
Wilson, Macy. 2017. “Addressing Racist Microaggressions.” January 6. Inside Higher Ed.
Wilson, Robin. 2017. “Harassment Vigilance: At Academic Meetings, Less Boozing and More Schmoozing and Hiking” February 26. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Wingfield, Adia Harvey. 2018. “When Black Men Are Harassed.” May 8. Slate.
Zippel, Kathrin. 2017. “Sexual Harassment in Research Abroad.” March 31. Inside Higher Ed.
Scholarly Articles on Harassment
Armstrong, Elizabeth A., Miriam Gleckman-Krut, and Lanora Johnson. 2018. “Silence, Power, and Inequality: An Intersectional Approach to Sexual Violence.” Annual Review of Sociology 44:99-122. (institutional access required)
Biggs, Jacklyn, Patricia H. Hawley, and Monica Biernat. 2018. “The Academic Conference as a Chilly Climate for Women: Effects of Gender Representation on Experiences of Sexism, Coping Responses, and Career Intentions.” Sex Roles 78(5):394-408. (institutional access required)
Cantalupo, Nancy Chi and Kidder, William, C. 2018. “A Systematic Look at a Serial Problem: Sexual Harassment of Students by University Faculty.” Utah Law Review. 2018 (3) Article 4: 671-786.
Clancy, Kathryn B. H., Katharine M.N. Lee, Erica M. Rodgers, and Christina Richey. 2017. “Double Jeopardy in Astronomy and Planetary Science: Women of Color Face Greater Risks of Gendered and Racial Harassment.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 122(7), 1610-1623. (institutional access required)
Davis, Molly Everette., Halaevalu F. Ofahengaue Vakalahi, and Renay Scales. 2015. “Women of Color in the Academy.” Pp. 265-277 in Disrupting the Culture of Silence: Confronting Gender Inequality and Making Change in Higher Education, edited by K. De Welde and A. Stepnick. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. ($30 E-book purchase required)
Dobbin, Frank and Erin L. Kelly. 2007. “How to Stop Harassment: Professional Construction of Legal Compliance in Organizations.” American Journal of Sociology 112(4): 1203-1243.
Given, Terri E. 2019. “Dealing with Harassment at Academic Conferences: An Interview with Lawyer Paula Brantner.” December 15. Higher Ed Connects.
Grollman, Eric A. 2014. “Multiple Disadvantaged Statuses and Health: The Role of Multiple Dimensions of Discrimination.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 55: 3-19. (institutional access required)
Grollman, Eric A. 2018. “Black, Queer, and Beaten: On the Trauma of Graduate School.” Pp. 159-171 in Negotiating the Emotional Challenges of Conducting Deeply Personal Research in Health, edited by A. C. H. Nowakowski and J. E. Sumerau. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ($40 E-book purchase required)
Gruber, James E. and Phoebe Morgan. 2005. “In the Company of Men: Male Dominance and Sexual Harassment.” Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. ($30 E-book purchase required)
Hanson, Rebecca, and Patricia Richards. 2017. “Sexual Harassment and the Construction of Ethnographic Knowledge.” Sociological Forum 32(3):587-609.
Kmec, Julie A., C. Elizabeth Hirsh, and Sheryl Skaggs. 2016. “Workplace Regulation of Sexual Harassment and Federal and State-Level Legal Environments.” Research in the Sociology of Work 29:215-240.
McGuffey, C. Shawn. 2013. “Rape and Racial Appraisals: Culture, Intersectionality and Black Women’s Accounts of Sexual Assault.” Du Bois Review 10(1): 109-130. (institutional log-in required)
McLaughlin, Heather, Christopher Uggen, and Amy Blackstone. 2012. “Sexual Harassment, Workplace Authority, and the Paradox of Power.” American Sociological Review 77(4): 625-647.
McLaughlin, Heather, Christopher Uggen, and Amy Blackstone. 2017. “The Economic and Career Effects of Sexual Harassment on Working Women.” Gender & Society 31(3): 333-358.
Meyer, Doug. 2012. “An Intersectional Analysis of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) People’s Evaluations of Anti-Queer Violence.” Gender & Society 26(6): 849-873. (institutional log-in required)
Nelson, Robin G., Julienne N. Rutherford, Katie Hinde, and Kathryn B. H. Clancy. 2017. “Signaling Safety: Characterizing Fieldwork Experiences and Their Implications for Career Trajectories.” American Anthropologist 119(4):710-22.
Pascoe, C.J. and Jocelyn A. Hollander. 2016. “Good Guys Don’t Rape: Gender, Domination and Mobilizing Rape.” Gender & Society 30(1): 67-79. (institutional log-in required)
Pyke, Karen D. 2018. “Institutional Betrayal: Inequity, Discrimination, Bullying, and Retaliation in Academia.” Sociological Perspectives 61(1):5-13.
Saguy, Abigail C. (2003). What is Sexual Harassment? From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne. Berkley, CA: University of California Press. ($35 E-book purchase required)
Settles, Isis H., and Rachel C. O’Connor. 2014. “Incivility at Academic Conferences: Gender Differences and the Mediating Role of Climate.” Sex Roles 71(1):71-82.
Texeira, Mary T. 2002. “’Who Protects and Serves Me?’ A Case Study of Sexual Harassment of African American Women in One U.S. Law Enforcement Agency.” Gender & Society 16(4): 524-545. (institutional log-in required)
Tinkler, Justine E. 2013. “How Do Sexual Harassment Policies Shape Gender Beliefs? An Exploration of The Moderating Effects Of Norm Adherence And Gender.” Social Science Research 42: 1269-1283. (institutional log-in required)
Tinkler, Justine, Skylar Gremillion, and Kira Arthurs. 2015. “Perceptions of Legitimacy: The Sex of the Legal Messenger and Reactions to Sexual Harassment Training.” Law & Social Inquiry. (Institutional log-in required)
Uggen, Christopher and Amy Blackstone. 2004. “Sexual Harassment as a Gendered Expression of Power.” American Sociological Review 69(1):64-92. (institutional log-in required)
Welsh, Sandy, Jacquie Carr, Barbara MacQuarrie, and Audrey Huntley. 2006. “I’m not thinking of it as sexual harassment’: Understanding harassment across race and citizenship.” Gender & Society 20(1), 87–107. (institutional log-in required)
Williams, Christine L., Patti A. Giuffre, and Kirsten Dellinger. 1999. “Sexuality in the Workplace: Organizational Control, Sexual Harassment, and the Pursuit of Pleasure.” Annual Review of Sociology 25: 73-93. (institutional log-in required)
Zippel, Kathrin S. 2006. “The Politics of Sexual Harassment: A Comparative Study of the United States, the European Union, and Germany.” Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ($30 E-book purchase required)
Reports
National Academies. 2018. Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Smarts Consulting. Make Meetings Safe and Welcoming for All.
Sapiro, Virginia, and David Campbell. 2018. “Report on the 2017 APSA Survey on Sexual Harassment at Annual Meetings.” PS: Political Science & Politics 51(1):197-206.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 2018. Harassment Policy Tips.
Association of American Universities. 2019. Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct.
Freedom for Immigrants. 2017. Widespread Sexual Assault.
White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. 2014. “Not alone: The first report of the White House task force to protect students from sexual assault.”
