The #MeToo movement has illuminated how sexual violence continues to be an urgent problem with both ethical and political implications. In the U.S. and elsewhere, sexual violence is one of the most pervasive yet underreported crimes that disproportionally impact women, especially those from marginalized communities. Moreover, as feminist scholars have criticized, when women seek to expose these harms, they risk being disbelieved, interrogated, and left feeling isolated, ashamed, and disempowered. Given the prevalence of sexual violence and the normative implications that it carries, what tools are available to confront it?

This project develops a novel theory of civic testimony to illuminate how some practices of testimony can help women and marginalized communities struggle against sexual violence and for a more egalitarian society aligned with feminist ethics. Building on feminist theory, democratic theory, and interdisciplinary work on testimony, this dissertation theorizes the potential testimonies carry to promote multiple ethical and political ends. These include asserting epistemic authority, claiming political agency, generating solidarity, advancing awareness and calls for change, and mobilizing political action. These insights are drawn from an examination of how women have used different forms of testimony in the official legal realm and through civil society channels. Specifically, this study focuses on contemporary court cases, the anti-rape movement in the 1970s in the U.S., and the digital arena through the case of the Facebook page “One of One” in Israel. This analysis supports arguments for improving legal processes related to legal testimony but turns a spotlight on civil society as the site with the greatest potential for testimonies to operate as democratic tools that can empower movements and fuel social change. Moreover, it argues that civic testimonies are vital for informing and radicalizing civil society itself. Thus, they can play a key role in advancing the goals of egalitarian democracy. Democratic citizens, social justice advocates, and scholars need to recognize how and why civic testimonies can do dramatic work and become catalysts for democratic resistance and egalitarian change.

How do different localized political contexts shape the political participation, strategies, and civic engagement of youth from mixed-status families? This dissertation investigates the relationship between the political participation of youth from mixed-status families and their political contexts through a comparative case study design. More specifically, it examines the experience of youth in two counties within California’s high poverty Central Valley, Kern and Fresno. In this comparative case study design, I utilized ethnographic methods, immersing myself in the field, conducting semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observations with youth from mixed-status families in the Central Valley region. The political opportunity structures within Kern and Fresno counties offered both constraints and opportunities for youth from mixed-status families to organize and make claims. On the one hand, an “anti-political” climate suppressed traditional socializing agents; on the other, community-based organizations and youth organizing groups could bridge this gap to participation if youth felt as though they were empowered to be agents of change. Even so, youth within both contexts demonstrated levels of engagement that seemed to be increased as a result of their mixed status. Finding motivation through their lived experiences and identities, youth from mixed-status families found a mobilizing identity growing up in Latinx immigrant families. In the chapters and case studies that follow, I argue that youth from mixed-status families are more engaged than one might expect. Second, while there is a limited role of parents and schools in motivating engagement, Community based organizations and youth organizing groups have acted as a bridge to galvanize participation in this region. Finally, I contend that local political contexts can deeply shape political engagement as well as the constraints and opportunities that youth from mixed-status families must navigate.