Private Violence: A Conversation about Gender-Based Violence and Asylum in the United States
Michele Waslin
Assistant Director, Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota
Carol Cleaveland
Associate Professor of Social Work, George Mason University
Moderated by:
Cat Gargano
Kellogg Doctoral Student Affiliate, Peace Studies & Psychology
As part of Graduate Student Appreciation Week, the Kellogg and Klau institutes welcome Michele Waslin, a Notre Dame alumna, and her co-author Carol Cleaveland for a talk based on their book of the same name. Private Violence exposes how the US asylum system fails to protect Latin American women fleeing severe gender-based violence, including assault and death threats from intimate partners and gangs. The book reveals the legal challenges these women face due to asylum laws rooted in outdated views that persecution must come from state actors, not private individuals. It advocates for policy reforms to incorporate a gender-based perspective in asylum law, highlighting both the system's flaws and the resilience of survivors and their advocates.
Presented by the Kellogg Institute and the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights.
Michele Waslin is the assistant director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, where she tracks and analyzes immigration research and policy. She has nearly 20 years of experience in immigration policy research, writing, and advocacy. She holds a PhD in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame.
Carol Cleaveland is associate professor of social work at George Mason University whose research focuses on Latino immigration and gender-based violence. She earned her PhD from Bryn Mawr College and specializes in immigration-related trauma and advocacy for vulnerable populations.