Notice Board

Sexual Violence & Social Media – What is Cyber Violence?

Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram (to name a few) are social media sites that have become the voice of our generation. These Internet platforms are tools used to discover who we are, to connect with each other and think globally, but these can also become spaces that perpetuate toxic norms and violence.

The problem of cyber violence and online abuse is the greatest challenge the Internet faces today. While social media sites do not cause cyber violence they do impact the ways in which this violence occurs and they can impact the ways in which this violence is prevented. Learn what cyber violence is and isn’t, how young women are becoming change-makers and why social media companies have a responsibility to intervene.     

Speaker:           Erin Leigh and Dillon Black

Erin Leighhas a long-standing commitment to feminism and to anti-racist and anti-oppression principles and ways of working. She is the Executive Director of the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW). She has experience in international, Canadian and UK women’s rights. She has a graduate degree in gender and development from the Institute of Development Studies (UK), and has worked for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Oxfam GB, the UK Women’s Budget Group, Canadians for Choice and Status of Women Canada. 

Dillon Black is a gender-nonconforming anti-violence advocate; feminist media maker meets social worker. Dillon is passionate about youth centered initiatives and building capacity for community as a tool to educate and transform. Dillon is active in anti-violence work locally, and sees anti-racist, anti-oppression, and resiliency frameworks as central to the work they do. In the past Dillon was on the National Youth Advisory Board for Sexual Health and HIV, partnered with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, and currently is a project coordinator at the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women, a board member of the Queer Mafia, and studied Social Work with a double minor in Indigenous and Sexuality Studies at Carleton University. 

Moderator:       Lindsay Brown 

Date:                Wednesday, November 25, 2015  

Time:                 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Location:          Room PE250, First Choice Saving Centre, University of Lethbridge

This session supports the “16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign” and is hosted/supported by the Department of New Media, Office of the President, LPIRG, the Women Scholars Speaker Series, PSAC, the ULFA Gender, Equity & Diversity Committee, ULSU, the Campus Women’s Centre and SACPA. 

Free event, free parking, everyone welcome. Snacks (pizza) and refreshments will be served.