The year 2014 marked the 20th anniversary of the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). That milestone presented an opportunity to critically reflect on current gender-violence policy, and to build on shared critiques to flesh out an alternative agenda. In that spirit, two new resources offer inspiration for mobilization and advocacy. First, the City University of New York (CUNY) Law Review’s Footnote Forum has published an online collection of 15 short essays “re-imagining” VAWA in service of progressive reform. The essays are based in an intersectional understanding of the ways in which various forms of inequality create and sustain violence. They draw on critiques grounded in the movement against mass criminalization and intrusive state intervention in the lives of poor people, as well as in work for immigrant rights, economic rights, LGBTQ equality, disability rights, racial justice, and human rights. The multi-disciplinary essays, plus an introduction that summarizes the works and draws out themes, can be found here: http://www.cunylawreview.org/category/vawa/.
Similarly, the conversation held at CUNY Law School on November 13, 2014, “VAWA@20: Reflecting, Re-imagining & Looking Forward,” with Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, Sharon Stapel and Sujata Warrier, and moderated by Professor Julie Goldscheid, is now available on line for those who missed the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ60BSodHaA. The conversation explored similar themes to those elaborated in the essay collection. Speakers reflected on how lessons from the last 20 years can inform policies and programs that promote gender, racial and other forms of equality, while working to end intimate partner and other forms of violence.
-Donna Coker
