Sexual Violence Research Initiative: Faculty

Mariel Barnes, PhD (she/her)

Assistant Professor, La Follette School of Public Affairs Dr. Barnes’ research investigates the impact of the welfare state on everyday violence against women (EVAW) with a focus on highly industrialized countries, particularly in Europe. Her book project argues that Europe’s extremely high rates of physical and sexual violence against women are an unintended consequence of implementation and promotion of the “universal breadwinning model” – a set of family policies that are designed to alleviate the burdens of familyhood on women but in actuality, prompt a violent backlash from men. Mariel utilizes a multi-method empirical strategy which incorporates cross-national and sub-national statistical analysis, survey research, interviews, and ethnographic observation. This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, and the Institute for Humane Studies.

Sara B. Chadwick, PhD (she/her)

Assistant Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies, and Psychology Dr. Chadwick’s research focuses on identifying and assessing “gray-area” forms of sexual coercion and dating abuse – i.e., negative sexual and dating experiences that do not fit typical definitions of sexual assault or violence. She is also deeply invested in understanding how such experiences differ for women, men, and gender/sexual minorities (e.g., bisexual, lesbian/gay, trans, nonbinary) and contribute to sexual and psychological health disparities (e.g., sexual functioning, psychological distress, STI/HIV risk). Sara’s research utilizes quantitative and qualitative methods (e.g., via online surveys, experiments, and interview data) and integrates approaches from psychology, public health, and feminist/queer science.

Celina Doria, PhD (she/her)

Assistant Professor, Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work Dr. Doria’s research explores the intersections of reproductive justice, gender-based violence, and state violence. In particular, her research has centered Indigenous women’s embodied experiences of interpersonal violence and reproductive healthcare, incarcerated women’s experiences of motherhood, and experiences of self-managed abortion. Her current research explores the role of feminist abortion accompaniment networks in reshaping the landscapes of abortion care between Mexico and the United States. Celina engages critical qualitative methods, including ethnography, body mapping, and community-centered approaches to research.

Lara Gerassi, PhD (she/her)

Associate Professor, Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work Dr. Gerassi’s research focuses on enhancing the health and well-being of people who are involved in the sex trade and/or are at risk of sex trafficking. Her work uses an intersectional, anti-oppressive approach to (1) understand how sex trafficking experiences differ based on race, sex, gender, and sexual orientation among other identities; (2) improve sex trafficking identification practices among health and social service providers; and (3) strengthen the health and community responses for people at risk of sex trafficking and those with lived experiences of sex trafficking and homelessness. She uses community-engaged approaches to increase methodological rigor of her studies and translate knowledge into practice.

Chloe Hart, PhD (she/her)

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology Dr. Hart’s research explores the social conditions in which sexual violence is enabled and the inequalities that result from it. In one stream of research, she examines how elements of organizational culture, like the way leaders communicate about the sexual violence, shape how sexual violence is perceived. In a second stream of research, she explores the subtle costs of sexual harassment, such as the hidden labor that people engage in to avoid workplace sexual harassment and the negative stereotypes and resulting bias that may come with being known as a target of sexual harassment. Methodologically, Chloe uses interviews to capture how people make sense of sexual violence, and survey experiments to isolate mechanisms that promote inequalities stemming from sexual violence.

LB Klein, PhD (they/them or she/her)

Assistant Professor, Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work

Jeneile Luebke, Phd, RN (she/her/kwe)

Assistant Professor, School of Nursing

Dr. Luebke is an enrolled member of Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. She received her BS and MS Nursing from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, and her PhD at UW-Milwaukee.  She is a key part of a team of multi-site researchers who are involved in several community engaged research and service grants that aim to better understand the lived experiences of gender-based violence, as well as advocating for survivor-led, trauma informed, and culturally safe interventions and options for Indigenous survivors of violence.  Her other current work focuses upon the relationship between land violence, planetary health, and gender-based violence among Indigenous peoples.

Kait Sims, PhD (she/her)

Assistant Professor of Microeconomics for Public Policy Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver Dr. Sims is an Assistant Professor of Microeconomics for Public Policy at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She received her PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in spring 2022. Her research is at the intersection of public health, the economics of violence, and environmental health hazards. She is broadly interested in the ways that individuals cope with uncertainty and social turbulence, including housing insecurity, domestic violence, and poverty.  Sims uses research includes data in all scales, including original data collection, “big” data and spatial analysis, program evaluation, and qualitative interviews.

Dr. Kate Walsh (she/her)

Professor, Psychology and Gender & Women’s Studies Dr. Walsh’s interdisciplinary program of research focuses on the intersection of trauma exposure, mental disorders, and substance use disorders with a particular focus on risk factors for and outcomes of sexual violence. One line of research addresses risk factors for sexual violence perpetration and victimization in multiple contexts, including the military and college. This research focuses on understanding risk factors at multiple ecological levels (individual, interpersonal, and broader environmental/societal) with the goal of developing multi-level prevention programs that are tailored to specific environments. A second line of research focuses on secondary prevention and treatment of negative sequelae associated with sexual violence victimization including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and substance use disorders. She recently received NIDA funding to develop and test a video and text messaging intervention to prevent the onset and/or escalation of PTSD and opioid misuse among recent sexual assault survivors. She also has funding from UW-Madison to better understand barriers and facilitators to post-sexual assault services among minoritized survivors and funding from Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families to study the effectiveness of a housing intervention for families exposed to domestic violence.