KNOW HOW

Know How - Together Against Sexualised Violence At The University is an online learning tool that addresses sexual harassment in academic contexts through situational narratives and perspective shifts. Developed for the University of Göttingen, it is aimed at students, researchers, and staff across the institution. The tool combines short animated videos with questions that encourage reflection on roles, responsibilities, and possible courses of action in situations of harassment or boundary violations. Rather than focusing on abstract policy explanations, the videos present everyday university scenarios in which power relations, hierarchies, and institutional structures shape how people experience and respond to problematic situations.

The project is structured around four thematic chapters: understanding what sexualised violence is, why it must be addressed, how individuals can act, and where support can be found. Together they aim to help members of the university recognise harmful dynamics, understand their rights and responsibilities, and become familiar with available support structures.
The video series takes up the chapters and uses condensed everyday scenarios from academic life to explore how sexual harassment and abuse of power take shape within institutional hierarchies and social dynamics. The visual language of the films is deliberately reduced. Minimalist animation focuses attention on the interactions between characters while avoiding explicit or sensational imagery.

In addition to an introductory video, I developed four scenes, each addressing a different form of harrassment or abuse of power and representing a different status group within the university. Each scene is set in a single everyday situation – such as a staff meeting, a lecture, or a dinner – while the voice-over reveals how the situation evolved and the institutional dynamics that shaped it. On the visual level, each scenario introduces a subtle “fantastical” element that expands the narrative described in the voice-over. In the staff meeting, for example, a forest gradually grows around the meeting table as past incidents and long-standing patterns are described. These visual metaphors allow the films to evoke structural dynamics and accumulated experiences without reproducing explicit scenes of violence. A restrained colour palette integrates the videos into the overall design of the digital platform and supports their use in educational and training contexts. The focus on the color orange references the #orangetheworld camapign.