Professor Debra Rodman, Ph.D., Invited to White House Briefing

Professor Debra H. Rodman, Ph.D.

R-MC Professor Debra H. Rodman (anthropology and women's studies) was invited to the White House on Friday, November 6, to brief Lynn Rosenthal, Barack Obama's advisor on domestic violence and violence against women, on the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA), which will come before the United States Congress this year. Rodman was joined by delegates of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission and several professors from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

The briefing covered details on feminicide and violence against women in Guatemala, an area of Rodman's scholarly expertise. “The briefing highlighted the need for inclusion of Guatemala as one of the selected countries for implementing IVAWA, due to increasing rates of feminicide and violence against women, impunity and gender inequality,” said Rodman.

Rodman's work is in conjunction with that of other scholars who seek to educate the community about violence against women. Rodman was joined in D.C. by Karen Smith Rotabi, an assistant professor of social work at VCU who specializes in global social work, and Janett Forte, assistant professor of psychiatry at VCU and program director for the VCU Institute for Women’s Health.

Rodman, along with R-MC Professor Brian Turner, Ph.D. (political science) recently hosted a lecture on campus by Guatemalan torture survivor Gladys Monterroso, who spoke on violence, impunity and immigration reform.

Rodman joined the faculty at Randolph-Macon College in 2004. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Miami and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida.


For more information, on the Guatemala Human Rights Commission’s Women's Right to Live campaign, visit http://www.ghrc-usa.org/Programs/ForWomensRighttoLive.htm 
 
For information on the International Violence Against Women Act, visit http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/women-s-rights/violence-against-women?id=1051201

For more information on R-MC’s sociology and anthropology program, visit http://www.rmc.edu/academics/sociology.aspx  

For more information on R-MC’s women’s studies program, visit
http://www.rmc.edu/academics/womens-studies.aspx