muLtidisCiPLinAry engAgement
100 shades of grey DISSEMINATING SEXUAL HEALTH RESEARCH USING THEATRE AND SMART CONSENT WORKSHOPS In 2014 Dr Pádraig MacNeela completed a collaborative research project with Rape Crisis Network Ireland, titled ‘Young People, Alcohol and Sex: What’s Consent Got to Do With It?’ This research has since prompted a comprehensive range of follow up by Dr MacNeela and PhD students at the School of Psychology at NUI Galway. This has included a survey of over 1,200 students conducted by Elaine Byrnes, a PhD candidate in Psychology. This survey found that lifetime prevalence of reported unwanted sexual contact by means of force or threats of force was 25% among female students (and 6% among male students). Unfortunately, similar statistics have also been produced within international studies from the USA and across Europe, showing that this is a prevalent issue requiring action in the higher education sector. THE USE OF THEATRE Academic collaborations have since formed between the School of Psychology and the School of Drama and Performance where Dr Charlotte McIvor has been responsible for developing the academic module for third year NUI Galway students, ‘Contemporary Drama: Text and Performance’. This module has engaged students to devise and produce the theatre piece‘100 Shades of Grey’, which explores the serious and prevalent issues surrounding the experience of sexual assault and the definition of consent within sexual encounters in contemporary times. This project provides an inspiring and dynamic example of how students, academic staff and community partners can collaborate and engage with important and intense subject matter to produce effective means to educate and disseminate academic research results with the wider population. Dr McIvor reports that she has ‘had a long-time activist interest in sexual assault on college campuses, in particular as an educator and theatre-maker’ and this academic project has been ‘catalyzed by her colleague Dr Pádraig MacNeela’ who approached her after completing his report. SMART CONSENT INITIATIVE This initiative delivers sexual consent workshops to students and is an additional approach that has been developed to use these research findings to support students to engage with a positive model of sexual consent based on mutuality, agreement and communication. Students who take part in the SMART Consent workshop never have to disclose any personal information, but the use of peer learning, realistic scenarios and feedback on survey findings ensures that it is relevant to them and grounded in familiar experiences. The research group is multidisciplinary, including sexual health promotion experts like Dr Siobhán O’Higgins, and collaborators in NUI Galway
like Ms Lorraine Tansey, coordinator of the NUI Galway ALIVE programme. Dr MacNeela says that “sexuality is an integral part of personal identity, and students have told us that agreement and mutual respect are important to them. We decided to offer students a space in which they can work out how to navigate ‘grey areas’ that arise in situations of intimacy, which occur due to factors like alcohol use and not feeling comfortable talking about what you want”. The development of both the SMART Consent initiative and the ‘Contemporary Drama: Text and Performance’ academic module demonstrate how staff in NUI Galway have been taking a proactive approach to educating students and promoting positive sexual health and well-being for students.
The Manuela Programme is a collaborative project between the Rape Crisis Centres and Network in Ireland, initiated and funded by the Manuela Riedo Foundation Ireland and facilitated by Dr. Susan Redmond. The SMART Consent workshops have facilitated over 800 students to take part since they began in 2014. A number of institutions have expressed interest in the initiative, and Dr MacNeela’s research team recently worked with Trinity College Dublin Students Union in the delivery of SMART Consent workshops to 400 first year students. This initiative is now being supported by the Irish Research Council / Crisis Pregnancy Agency Research for Policy & Society scheme. Dr Pat Morgan, Vice President for the Student Experience and Mr John Hannon, Director of Student Services have both championed SMART Consent through support from the NUI Galway Student Projects Fund. To hear interviews with students, staff and community partners in relation to this work log on to this link http://www.flirtfm.ie/ articles/2016/2/shag-week-interviews/
THE STUDENT RESPONSE While no formal evaluation has been completed, students involved in the 2015/2016 ensemble working on ‘100 Shades of Grey’ have reported ‘consent we figured out is such a grey area, and a lot of people think they know what consent is but don’t actually know what the boundaries are’. These students acknowledged the complexity of defining consent and outlined the importance of exploring consent within different scenarios and from different perspectives including; gender, sexual orientation and within relationships. When reflecting on the educational benefit of this project, one student reported ‘I feel since we’ve come together to complete this drama piece, I do understand it [consent] so much better, I think it will help me and protect me because I understand the situations, what can happen and what the dangerous boundaries.’ EXPANDING THE REACH Since ‘100 Shades of Grey’ was first devised and performed in the Autumn of 2014, it has seen significant developments in how it is being disseminated to impact the wider student population and community members. The academic module continues each year, the theatre piece has been performed during events such as orientation weeks and SHAG week in NUI Galway. Videos of the original staged reading have been circulated for use in education programmes by community stakeholders including the Kerry Rape Crisis Centre and HSE South. A recent film adaptation will also be used as part of a series of affirmative consent-focused sexual health workshops called the “Manuela Programme” aimed at secondary school students.
30 | CKI Magazine 2016-2017 www.nuigalway.ie/cki
25%
of female students (and 6% of male students) report that, in their lifetime, someone has used or threatened physical force to have / attempt to have sexual contact with them.
80%
Over of students say it is important to provide information / talks about sexual consent.
Half
of female students report unwanted sexual advances in the past year due to someone else’s drinking (e.g., being touched, grabbed, or groped)
Half
of single NUIG students are comfortable telling a romantic partner what they like sexually