All-Campus Lectures and Workshops

Alan D. Berkowitz, Ph.D.


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  1. 1. Promoting Consent, Preventing Coercion: What Men and Women Can Do to Prevent Sexual Assault. Men and women both must take responsibility for preventing sexual assault, but in different ways. This lecture presents guidelines for relationships in which sexual activity is mutual, uncoerced, and consenting, helps explain men's fear of false accusation, and outlines steps both men and women can take to prevent sexual assault and intervene in risky situations. (for mixed gender audiences).


  2. 2. Is Rape Prevention A Men's Issue? This lecture outlines reasons why men must take responsibility for preventing sexual assault. What do men feel about this issue and about the politics of sexual behavior? What can men do to address our fear of false accusation? How do men feel about the way other men talk about women and sex? This lecture is designed to address men's concerns about sexual assault and provide guidelines for consenting sexual intimacy. (for all male groups, including general audiences, members of men's groups - including


  3. 3.Is What I Want What You Want? Promoting Consent and Preventing Coercion in Intimate Relationships. What can men and women do to ensure that all sexual intimacy is mutual, uncoerced and consenting? What are guidelines for ensuring that consent is present? This lecture provides guidelines for what men can do to prevent rape and what women can do to reduce their risk of victimization, and what we can all do to create healthy campuses where sexual assault is uncommon.


  4. 4.Why Do Students Act the Way They Do? Popular media reports a rise in problems relating to drugs, sexual behavior, and academic motivation among college students. Are these problems really as bad as everyone seems to think? What keeps individual student's from speaking out against other student's inappropriate behavior? This lecture provides an insight into student behavior and the influences student's exert on each other and discusses the role of student leaders and activists in changing campus culture. (for mixed gender audiences)


  5. 5.Men and Women Working Together. Can men and women find common ground in addressing today's campus problems? This workshop is designed for male and female campus leaders to help us come together and understand each other's problems and perspectives, and to find ways to support each other's efforts.


  6. 6. Innovative Approaches to Behavioral Health and Social Justice Issues on Campus. Efforts to curb drinking are a focus on attention on most college campuses. What are the causes and consequences of high-risk drinking? How prevalent is it? What are effective strategies for prevention? What is the role of faculty, staff and student leaders in contributing to or ameliorating this problem? This presentation answers these questions in an overview of relevant research and theory on college student drinking, focusing on effective strategies for its prevention based on Social Norms Theory. Applications of the model are reviewed for other health problems as well as issues of prejudice and social justice.


  7. 7. Creating Healthy Campuses and Communities: Strategies for Reducing Health Problems and Prejudicial Behavior on Campus and in Communities. Health and human service professionals work with individuals who experience a variety of health problems (substance abuse, issues related to sexual behavior or sexuality, eating disorders, etc.) or who may be victims of prejudicial behavior (sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, etc.) These behaviors, which are injurious to personal health and/or detrimental to their victims and perpetrators, share a number of common underlying social psychological mechanisms that suggest that change strategies should focus on the social environment rather than exclusively on the individual. A theoretical approach for understanding these commonalities based on Social Norms Theory, relevant research findings, and model prevention/intervention strategies are presented which can be employed within higher education and in communities to address these behavioral health and social justice issues.


  8. 8. Changing Campus Culture: Promoting Behavioral Health and Social Justice. What is the role of faculty and staff in improving the health and well-being of our students? What does recent research on college students suggest that can guide our efforts? This presentation provides a model for campus culture change based on Social Norms Theory, which has been successfully used to reduce binge drinking on campuses nationwide. Applications of the model are provided for other health (eating disorders, sexual assault) and social justice issues (racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism) along with suggestions for prevention/intervention strategies.


  9. 9. Creating Healthy and Respectful Communities: The Role of Faculty, Staff and Student Leadership. How can we transform our campus into a healthy and respectful community that embodies the core values of this institution? In what ways may we unintentionally contribute to the problems we are trying to solve? Recent work in Social Norms Theory provides a framework for addressing health and social justice issues on campus and defines a role for faculty, staff, and student leaders as positive change agents. Emphasis will be placed on examining how individuals who adopt the role of passive bystander can be encouraged to take active leadership in solving campus problems.


Alan David Berkowitz is an independent consultant who helps colleges, universities, and communities design programs that address health and social justice issues. He is frequently asked to consult for institutions of higher education, the Federal government, and military academies and is well-known for his scholarship and innovative programming. Alan is the editor of The Report on Social Norms.