Carol Cleaveland presents PRIVATE VIOLENCE with Austin Kocher

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Carol Cleaveland joins us in Remington, in conversation with Austin Kocher, to discuss her book Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum.

About PRIVATE VIOLENCE

How the US asylum process fails to protect against claims of gender-based violence

Through eyewitness accounts of closed-court proceedings and powerful testimony from women who have sought asylum in the United States because of severe assaults and death threats by intimate partners and/or gang members, Private Violence examines how immigration laws and policies shape the lives of Latin American women who seek safety in the United States. Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin describe the women's histories prior to crossing the border, and the legal strategies they use to convince Immigration Judges that rape and other forms of "private violence" should merit asylum ? despite laws built on Cold War era assumptions that persecution occurs in the public sphere by state actors.

Private Violence provides much-needed recommendations for incorporating a gender-based lens in the asylum process. The authors demonstrate how policy changes across Presidential administrations have made it difficult for survivors of "private violence" to qualify for asylum. Private Violence paints a damning portrait of America's broken asylum system. This volume illustrates the difficulties experienced by Latin American women who rely on this broken system for protection in the United States. It also illuminates women's resilience and the determination of immigration attorneys to reshape asylum law.

Private Violence releases on Tuesday, October 15. You can preorder your copy here!

Carol Cleaveland is Associate Professor of Social Work at George Mason University and the co-author (with Michele Waslin) of Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum (NYU Press, 2024).

Austin Kocher is a political and legal geographer studying the theories, laws, and institutional practices behind immigration enforcement and is Assistant Research Professor with Syracuse University’s Civic Research Data Lab.

Host or Publisher Greedy Reads