Gender, race and violence expert to speak at to WVU

Mar. 4--Jackson Katz, a nationally known expert on gender, race and violence, will be in Morgantown today at the WVU Creative Arts Center to discuss why it's the responsibility of everyone to end gender violence.

"Jackson Katz's message is aimed at students, and he emphasizes the importance of holding each other accountable, " Cindy Scott, assistant director of WVU's Office of Equity Assurance Division of Diversity Equality and Inclusion, whose organization is sponsoring Katz's talk, said in an email. "His message is focused on creating a mindset change by teaching the students to no longer accept or ignore inappropriate comments or conduct."

Katz, 59, is the founder of Mentors in Violence Prevention program, an international gender violence prevention platform. MVP is a long-running prevention program used in professional sports, as well as the U.S. Military. Katz is also the author of The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women & How All Men Can Get Help and Man Enough: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton & the Politics of Presidential Masculinity.

"We are bringing Dr. Katz to campus primarily to address these concerns at the college level ; however, if we can start making these changes at younger ages, there is a greater likelihood that we will reduce gender violence at the college level, " Scott said.

College-aged women have the highest per capita rate of intimate partner violence. This is because of peer pressure, drugs and alcohol, social media and limited relationship experience, she said.

From 2000 to 2003, Katz served on the U.S. Secretary of Defense's Task Force on Domestic Violence in the Military. He has also worked on a number of state and federal projects on gender violence and prevention education.

Katz's talk starts at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public. He will also take questions from the audience once his talk is finished.

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