School of Social Work Faculty, Graduate and Alumni Present Research at Oslo Conference

Kameri Christy, professor of social work, and Dr. Valandra, associate professor of social work and director of the African and African American Studies Program, joined with Kelly Dundon, a graduate student in the M.S.W. program, and Tana Welter, an alumna of the M.S.W. program, to present three symposium papers and a workshop at the third European Conference on Domestic Violence Sept 1-4 in Oslo, Norway.

The three papers, based on a study conducted about intimate partner violence against women in the United Kingdom, focused on service users and service providers' perceptions of the help-seeking process and their insights regarding economic abuse generally and financial abuse specifically. The social work faculty and students also conducted a workshop on the efficacy of using a multi-systems life course (MSLC) perspective to illuminate structural social and economic advances and inequalities concerning policies and practices in the field of intimate partner violence against women.

The MSLC perspective, developed by faculty at the School of Social Work at the University of Arkansas over 15 years ago, is gaining national and international attention. The purpose is to advance social work practice at the micro, mezzo and macro levels to better address the needs of individuals, families, groups, communities and societies as we prepare for the complexities of the 21st century.

The recognition of economic abuse is an emerging area of research, practice and policy in the field of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the United States and Europe. In their original study, the team sought to better understand

• The journey that survivors of IPV undertake in their attempts to get help
• The dynamics of IPV, including economic abuse
• The policies put in place to decrease the risk of IPV, specifically economic abuse, and
• The services, programs and/or interventions that assist women experiencing IPV, including economic abuse in England.

Data collected for this research project are part of the Cambridge Research Fellowship awarded to professor Christy for the 2017-18 academic year by the J. William Fulbright College and Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University. The findings and recommendations from interviews with 13 service users and 24 service providers were shared at the conference attended by participants representing 41 countries.