AT: Women as Witnesses, Why We Doubt Testimony and Credibility

Start: Tuesday, April 24, 2018 9:30 AM

Please join the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence for an advanced training exploring the experience of women as witnesses and why systems and society doubt the testimony and experiences of female survivors. This 3-hour workshop will include two presentations from subject matter experts; Dr. Leigh Gilmore (Distinguished Visiting Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies, Wellesley College) will speak on her new book Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives, which explores the causes and impact of the doubt and societal discrediting that follows women who provide testimony on intimate partner and racial violence. Deborah Epstein, JD (Director Domestic Violence Clinic, Georgetown University Law Center) will present on her forthcoming paper that explores the discrediting and dismissal of women and survivors of intimate partner violence in legal and social service system settings.

About our facilitators:

Leigh Gilmore is the author of The Limits of Autobiography: Trauma and Testimony (2001) and Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-Representation (1994) and coeditor of Autobiography and Postmodernism (1994). She has published articles in Feminist Studies, Signs, Women's Studies Quarterly, and Biography, among others, and in numerous collections. She was Dorothy Cruickshank Backstrand Chair of Gender and Women's Studies at Scripps College, professor of English at the Ohio State University, and has held visiting appointments at Brown University, Harvard Divinity School, Northeastern University, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Deborah Epstein has been the Director of the Georgetown University Law Center's Domestic Violence Clinic for 20 years, and served as Associate Dean for Experiential Learning from 2005-2012. She co-chaired the DC Superior Court's effort to design and implement its Domestic Violence Unit. For five years, she served as Co-Director of the court's Domestic Violence Intake Center. She serves on the NFL Players' Association Commission on Violence, and has served as Chair of the DC Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board, Director of the Emergency Domestic Relations Project, and as a member of the DC Mayor's Commission on Violence Against Women, the DC Superior Court Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence Board of Directors, and the Board of Directors of the House of Ruth.

To request accommodations, or for any additional questions, please contact Leanne at lbrotsky@dccadv.org

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