In a Ms. Magazine feature article entitled “How One University is Leading the Fight Against Campus Rape Culture—By Way of a Public Reckoning,” Rebekah Modrak reveals how artist Traci Molloy’s portrait series “Against My Will,” featuring survivors of sexual assault and harassment at Alfred University, helped campus administrators to advocate for change around this campus issue.

According to Modrak, “For the past two years, Molloy has interviewed and painted portraits of over 20 AU women connected by the common bonds of surviving sexual assault or sexual harassment. Her work entered campus life in two forms: through public engagement and open discussions moderated by the artist herself, and by way of her portraits of survivors, hung as banners, that lined the walkway of Alfred University’s Academic Alley in 2018 during Sexual Assault Awareness Month and again during new student orientation.”

Alfred University administrators and trustees were encouraging of Molloy’s creative intervention, acting as supportive partners throughout the process to showcase the portraits on banners throughout campus during the prospective student tour season in 2018.

“Other universities would benefit from adapting their model of partnership—and heeding lessons from the outspoken ways Molloy and AU are welcoming testimony from survivors and exposing all students to issues around consent.”