For three days in late October 2022, 36 chairs were placed in the area between the Cate Center and the Science and Math Building. Each represented a victim of domestic violence homicides in North Carolina in 2022. Thirty-four of the chairs had photos of the victims taped to them, while two teddy bears sat in the front row to represent two child victims.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) was launched nationwide in 1987 and has been honored every October for over 30 years since. To raise awareness, the students from Kris Macomber’s gender and violence class put together the exhibit.

It is important to raise awareness on topics like these because they are not discussed enough. Many resources can help anyone in these situations, and it’s important to spread that information to offer these resources and show others what is happening around them,” said  Dedho-Doradea.

The class is taught each fall semester, and Macomber said she encourages her students to raise awareness on the topics they discuss in class. Since October is DVAM, she suggests that her students do something visible on campus to educate the community.

“There’s a domestic violence homicide list that the state coalition keeps updated every year. So I offer as a suggestion that they take the list and use it to honor the victims in some way,” she said.

A group of five students decided to draw attention to the growing number of homicides each year in North Carolina resulting from domestic violence by placing chairs in front of the Cate Center and having the photos and names of each victim. 

“When we first began our investigation, there were 24 victims. As of the date of our display, there were 36 in North Carolina,” said Jessica Dedho-Doradea, ’23, one of the five students who worked on the project.

Domestic violence is defined as “the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another” by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).

“It is important to raise awareness on topics like these because they are not discussed enough. Many resources can help anyone in these situations, and it’s important to spread that information to offer these resources and show others what is happening around them,” said  Dedho-Doradea. “Domestic violence can be seen in different forms, and there is a high risk of ending in a homicide.”

The exhibit, which was on display from October 25 until October 27, 2022, also contained a sheet explaining domestic violence, the common signs of an abusive partner, information and resources, and facts. According to the sheet, every 1 in 5 college women reports physical violence, and intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crimes. 

“I think because violence impacts so many people’s lives, it’s simultaneously common, and it’s considered normalized in our culture, but it’s something that shouldn’t be. It’s something that we should take very seriously. Everybody knows someone who’s been impacted by domestic violence. It’s a really challenging problem to address,” said Macomber.