The University of Connecticut’s Center for Advancing Research, Methods, and Scholarship (ARMS) for Gun Injury Prevention and Brown University’s Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy have jointly collaborated to host a four-part webinar series entitled Bearing the Burden. The series focuses on gun violence in America, its intersection with domestic violence, and its disproportionate impact on women, especially women of color. The impetus for the series is to bring together the community of scholars who are focusing on these crucial issues across multiple academic disciplines.
Panel 1: View the Recording
Title: Bearing the Burden: Lethal Links: Guns and Violence Against Women
Wednesday February 22, 2023
Panelists:
April Zeoli, Professor of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University
Sierra Smucker, Associate Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation
Brooklynn Hitchens, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
M. Kristen Hefner, Associate Professor, The Citadel
Moderator: Professor Kerri Raissian (UConn ARMS)
Panel 2: View the Recording
Title: Bearing the Burden: Legislative Responses to Firearm Violence Against Women
Wednesday March 22, 2023
Description: This panel brings together legislators and scholars who study the creation of firearm laws to understand how state and federal governments create firearm policy. Topics to be discussed include when laws are too vague, who fills the gaps, what laws have been effective, and what happens when people in power do not want to comply with the law.
Panelists:
Representative David Cicilline, US Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI), Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District
Gretta Gordy Gardner, Esq., Chief Legal Officer and Co-Founder of Ujima Inc., The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community
Lisa Geller, MPH, Director of State Affairs at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
Moderator: Professor Kaitlin Sidorsky (Coastal Carolina University)
Panel 3: View the Recording
Title: Bearing the Burden: Women of Color, Guns, and the Legal System
Wednesday April 26, 2023
Description: Women of color are more likely to be victims of domestic violence in the United States. This panel discusses this phenomenon as well as the unequal treatment women of color receive from the justice system from the higher likelihood of dual arrests to incarceration for self defense in domestic violence situations. The panel will also discuss black women becoming new gun owners as well as being more likely to bear the burden of losing a loved one due to domestic violence.
Panelists:
Noelle M. St. Vil, PhD, LMSW, MSW, Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo School of Social Work
Liz Tobin-Tyler, JD, MA, Associate Professor of Family Medicine, Associate Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice
TaShun Bowden-Lewis, Esq., Chief Public Defender, State of Connecticut
Carolyn M. West, PhD, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Washington
Moderator: Professor Jennifer Dineen (UConn ARMS)
Panel 4: View the Recording
Title: Bearing the Burden: Implementing Domestic Violence Gun Laws
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Description: This panel discusses the gap between laws on the books and their implementation. Panelists will discuss the connections between firearm removal and civil protection orders, explain who is in charge of actual firearm removal in domestic violence situations including the dangers of firearm removal and best practices, and discuss which laws are effective once they are implemented.
Panelists:
Ava Carcirieri, PhD, Director of Special Court Programs, Delaware Family Court
Alexandra Filindra, PhD, Associate Professor of Political Science and Psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago
Shannon Frattaroli, PhD, Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, affiliate of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions and Center for Injury Research and Policy
Moderator: Professor Wendy Schiller (Brown University)