The Violence Against Women (VAW) Art Map was conceived in the fall of 2018, in the wake of the #MeToo movement by Lauren Stetz, a Ph.D. candidate in Art Education with a minor in at Penn State University. Inspired by the globality of the hashtag movement, Stetz became fascinated by its unique manifestations in different geographic locations, questioning how the universal language of hashtags interacts with complex histories of oppression. Drawing from transnational and intersectional feminisms, Stetz queries the nuances of violence across borders, boundaries, and identity.
The VAW Art Map can be used to visualize connections between artists globally, highlighting themes such as vulnerability, shame and victim-blaming, and law and government. The VAW Art
Co-director of And So I Stayed (2021), a film documenting the struggles of unjustly incarcerated survivors of domestic violence, Natalie Patillo will discuss trauma-informed storytelling as a tool for activists as part of a three-part speaker series: