High attendance at a symposium on the survival of violence against women forced organizers to turn away participants Thursday, capping the turnout at 80 people.
The event, which focused on the process of healing through storytelling, visual art, songwriting, meditation and activism, and took place Thursday in the Rand Function Room.
The Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center, Vanderbilt University Police Department, and Women's and Gender Studies co-sponsored the event, entitled "The Healing Journey: Surviving Violence Against Women Symposium at Vanderbilt University."
The idea for the symposium formed when former Chief of Police Al Guyet attended a similar conference and decided he wanted to confront violence against Vanderbilt women in the same way.
The need for increased awareness of violence against women prompted the creation of the symposium, said Director of Crime Prevention Andrew Atwood.
Atwood said the symposium and the recent alleged rape of a Vanderbilt student both should help draw attention to the issue.
"I think anytime an incident like that - especially violence against women - occurs, I would think the Vanderbilt community would want to become more aware," he said.
Atwood said this symposium offered an opportunity for victims and those affected by violence to go back and learn something for themselves or for a friend.
"The overall hope of the symposium is to provide more information for those who have sought help or to provide resources to help cope," Atwood said.
The first session began with a keynote address from Dr. Charlotte Pierce-Baker and Dr. Houston Baker, who spoke of their own survival of violence, their rebuilding of family and relationship, and the role of storytelling and poetry in their healing.
"While I was the survivor of the rape, he was there by my side in support the whole time," said Pierce-Baker, who described her husband as a "co-survivor" of her rape.
Baker said he lost all faith in himself after a 1981 home invasion resulted in an attack on his wife.
"I had believed I was a knowing man, capable of standing firm to any threat to our family," Baker said.
He said he dealt with the trauma through poetry, as a means to cope and channel his energies away from the pain.
Pierce-Baker said while her trauma has past, she is unable to forget the experience.
"If you survive, the trauma is behind you, but, then the post-trauma begins and the scenes of rape, trauma and horror replay themselves over and over again," she said. "Re-memory is a lifetime event."
Current Chief of Police Marlon Lynch said he will seek to continue the symposium in the future.
"It's safe to say that the symposium would be something we could do annually," Lynch said. "If not on this topic of violence against women, then on another topic to fill a particular need expressed by students."
