The APSU Clothesline Project raises domestic abuse awareness and assists survivors in healing from abuse

Three times a year, Women’s and Gender Studies students organize the International Clothesline Project on APSU's campus. The APSU campus community joins activists nationally and internationally displaying the Clothesline Project. Students coordinate workshops at the Clothesline Project installations to make Tshirts that tell stories of interpersonal violence--physical, verbal, and sexual abuse and/or violation. Tshirts are made by survivors and friends or loved ones of survivors.  The Clothesline Project is displayed on campus in October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, in February for V-Day and during April for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Service Learning Opportunities:  Women’s and Gender Studies students learn about Clothesline Projects and serve as peer educators to display the project and/or support folks who want to make a Tshirt to contribute as Service Learning Project for Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies.

This project brings awareness to the campus and Clarksville Montgomery County of the impact of interpersonal violence in homes and intimate relationships, and it assists survivors in healing from abuse. In the Fall of 1997, students in the Introduction to Women's Studies course initiated these events on campus, and they have been sustained by Women's and Gender Studies students and the APSU Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance until the present.  Raising awareness of the impact of interpersonal violence on our community promotes healing for survivors and family members or friends of survivors.

As author Rachel Louise Snyder explains, “. . . domestic violence, rather than being a private problem, is a most urgent matter of public health.”  (No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know about Domestic Violence Can Kill Us, 2019).

“About half the cases of mass shootings are extreme incidents of domestic violence.” James Alan Fox, Northeastern University professor in Criminology, Law, and Public Policy (quoted in No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know about Domestic Violence Can Kill Us, 2019). 

For current semester date see Events Calendar.

Materials are available at the display to make T-shirts.