Alisa
Kessel

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“An essential contribution to our understanding of rape culture as an intersectional phenomenon.”

RAPE
FANTASIES

Alisa Kessel is a political theorist whose work explores how rape culture perpetuates sexual violence in our society. Her latest book, Rape Fantasies, argues that rape is a form of political domination and that the myths and practices of a rape culture identify who is dominable and who is entitled to dominate. Alisa teaches at the University of Puget Sound and writes at the intersection of feminist theory, democratic theory, and cultural studies.

“In US rape culture, sexual violence is an essential political tactic to preserve—and, oftentimes, to embolden—hierarchies of race, gender, sexuality, and class.”

MORE ABOUT ALISA

Alisa Kessel is a professor of Politics and Government at the University of Puget Sound, where she teaches political theory. Her scholarship explores how the structural power exerted by white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and capitalist and settler colonial exploitation threatens the democratic ideals of freedom, equality, and mutuality.

She earned her Ph.D. from Duke University and has published articles in feminist political theory and democratic pedagogy.

When she’s not teaching or writing, she’s speaking to broader audiences about how to understand and respond to the resurgence of heteropatriarchal values in U.S. culture.

RESEARCH AREAS:
• Consent & sexual violence Feminist theories of patriarchy and misogyny
• Reproductive domination and reproductive justice
• Democratic theory

Full CV available upon request.

Rape Fantasies challenges the common view that rape culture only targets women. From unexpected places from fracking sites to anti-trans legislation, Alisa Kessel shows how rape culture evolves and expands to discipline any group that threatens the sociopolitical order. In this culture, efforts to end sexual violence often perpetuate sexual violence instead. Drawing on intersectional feminist analysis and political theory, she offers a much-needed reconception of rape culture.