In order to better understand domestic violence and the long-lasting effects it can have on people and the communities in which they live, the Ä¢¹½´«Ã½\u2019s Susan B. Anthony Center will focus its 2015 Stanton\/Anthony luncheon and conversations event on the widely discussed topic. The annual event will take place on Friday, Oct. 9 as part of the University\u2019s Meliora Weekend and is one of several events in October held in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to prevent intimate partner abuse, we need to understand the root of the problem,\u201d says Catherine Cerulli, director of the Susan B. Anthony Center and the University\u2019s Laboratory of Interpersonal Violence and Victimization (LIVV). \u201cThis includes the emotional, psychological, and physical aspects of the issue.\u201d Cerulli says it is essential to look back at childhood experiences and family dysfunction, which is where adversity is often experienced first.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of thinking about the effects of intimate partner violence in an isolated kind of way, we need to look at it across the lifespan and across the developmental stages,\u201d says Dr. Tasneem Ismailji, a pediatrician, educator, and researcher on the health effects of violence and abuse. She will be delivering this year\u2019s keynote speech at the luncheon, titled, Intimate Partner Violence: An Update for Healthcare Professionals<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough this talk, I hope to change people\u2019s mindset and perspective on this issue. Research shows that what happens when you\u2019re young affects health outcomes, so in order to understand the effects of violence on health we need to think of experiences of abuse, adversity, poverty, racism, and more,\u201d said Ismailji.<\/p>\n After completing her pediatric residency at the URochester Medical Center in 1974, Ismailji went on to establish a successful practice in pediatric and adolescent medicine. In 2005, she co-founded the Academy on Violence and Abuse in Shakopee, Minnesota as a way to prevent, recognize, and treat people affected by violence. Having grown up in a patriarchal society in Pakistan, Ismailji said she often saw violence towards woman and children and the culture\u2019s lack of accountability towards males. She believes this is what led her to \u201cquestion social conventions and challenge assumptions towards violence and abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n Joining Ismailji for this year\u2019s conversations panel discussion are three other experts in the field of domestic violence. Dr. David Corwin, professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine; Dr. Dianne Morse, a physician, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the URochester Medical Center, and director of Women\u2019s Initiative Supporting Health-Transitions Clinic (WISH-TC); and Jamie Saunders, CEO of the Willow Domestic Violence Center of Greater Rochester.<\/p>\n