For this field work my group and I conducted an interview with Vanessa Grigoriadis. She is a writer for New York Magazine and wrote an article about Emma Sulkowicz. Emma was raped on her school campus (Columbia University) by a classmate, in her dorm room her sophomore year. After we read Vanessa’s Article we were glad to see that the press was taking a stand and reporting the truth. Columbia University did not expel the student who sexually assaulted Emma. Many colleges similar to Columbia decide not to bring a reported rape case to the police in order to protect the school’s reputation. Since then there has been many news articles on Emma, but we stilled had many questions to ask Vanessa because of her time spent with Emma and we were interested on her views on Campus Rape. We then went on to organize an interview by making a phone call and writing various emails. We met her at our school, guided her to the Fourth Grade classroom where we conducted our interview.
In our interview we learned many things about Vanessa, Emma, and more about the issue of Campus Rape. The interview went extremely well because we were able to have a conversation with her, but it still felt very professional. She told us how amazing Emma was to spend time with because of her empowerment and strength. She felt it is a serious issue that many young adults do not have access to sex education and education of how serious rape is in colleges. Many people are not provided with this as a part of their curriculum and they should be because when one out of five women will be sexually assaulted in their life, schools need to take a stand by education children. I completely agree with Vanessa and it opened my mind to the idea that the goal is to prevent rape not just prove people guilty once it has already happened. I think educating adolescents is a big part of this. Lastly, she said this was her first article she had written on rape, but she wants to continue having involvement with this issue. I felt this was extremely important that she now feels compelled to do more about this issue after having been exposed to it.
Vanessa has been able to set us up with various contacts and organizations including EROC (End Rape on Campus). Something I think my group and I did well was preparing questions, but something I think we could have improved on was being even more professional in our discussion skills. Overall, this meeting was eye opening because of all the things Vanessa had to say and it had a positive impact on my group and I.
This is my group and I, interviewing Vanessa Grigoriadis.
This is a photo of Vanessa Grigoriadis, New York Magazine writer.
