ANNE DePRINCE: After college, I worked in Washington, D.C., for a nonprofit that focused on education about child abuse. I used to spend evenings trying to clear my head. I would walk down along the Mall and look at the monuments. And over time it occurred to me that there weren't monuments to people who survived crimes. That really had an impact on me in terms of thinking about what role research can play in building a monument, a testament to, uh, to survival. And research is a way of collecting the stories, the experiences of women and children, boys and men, who unfortunately we really often marginalize as a society, so that, as a single voice, they may not be listened to.
STEPHEN SHIRK: Dr. DePrince has brought a whole new ethos in terms of community-engaged research that really places reciprocity at the core.
ANNE DePRINCE: When you ask a participant to tell the story of surviving sexual assault or finding the courage to testify in a courtroom, you really have a social contract with the person you've talked with, a commitment you've made to them as a researcher to make their story matter. Here at the University of Denver I have the great privilege of directing our Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning. My research team, the graduate students, the researchers with whom I collaborate, we have really brought a focus on building on what is known and extending knowledge into the unknown.
I guess, she had some great questions...
Going from data to application actually requires talking with community partners at the very start of a project.
REBECCA GERSHTEN: As a professional, and as a survivor of rape, the importance of the research that Anne provides brings light to subjects that our society does not really want to delve into or recognize.
ANNE DePRINCE: Building trust, restoring hope, really echoes for me the core values I hold as a researcher. There are many ways to do research, and I think of research that's done well as something that can really empower victims and survivors. That's how you build the best monument to people's experiences of crime and of trauma.
