Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus

A groundbreaking study transforms how we see and address the most misunderstood problem on college campuses: widespread sexual assault.

Sexual Citizens is an intimate exploration of life and sex among today’s college students. As part of the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) at Columbia University, Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan approach sexual assault as a public health problem and present an entirely new framework that emphasizes the roots of sexual assault, transcending current debates about consent, predators in a “hunting ground,” or the dangers of hooking up.

They reveal the social ecosystem that makes sexual assault a predictable element of life on a college campus. Through the powerful concepts of sexual projects, sexual citizenship, and sexual geographies, they offer a new language for understanding the forces that shape young people’s sexual relationships―physical spaces, alcohol, social factors like peer groups and norms―and the ways in which young people experience and interpret sex and assault. The result is an innovative lens that transforms our understanding of sexual assault and provides a new roadmap for how to address it.

Jennifer S. Hirsch is professor of sociomedical sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and codirects SHIFT, the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transformation at Columbia University.

Shamus Khan is professor and chair of sociology at Columbia University, and coheads the ethnographic team of SHIFT, the Sexual Health Initiative to Foster Transf...

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