Beyond Nassar: A Transformative Justice and Decolonial Feminist Approach to Campus Sexual Assault

Informed by decolonial feminism, this article documents a transformative justice response to relationship violence and campus sexual assault in the aftermath of the Larry Nassar case at Michigan State University. This article explores how the emphasis on liability and Title IX compliance as the response to gender-based violence can function to silence survivors, particularly survivors of color and queer, gender nonbinary, and trans survivors, while also denying them precious access to resources for healing. In so doing, the author raises key questions that help illustrate the difference between current approaches that mimic a criminal justice response and fail to support a broad range of survivors and a transformative justice response that is attentive to the intergenerational impact of settler-colonial histories, ongoing statesanctioned violence, and the coloniality and racialization of gender.