See Jane Fight Back

Self-Defense scholars Jill Cermele and Martha McCaughey have created See Jane Fight Back, a website covering research on women’s self-defense.

Located at http://seejanefightback.wordpress.com, See Jane Fight Back includes:

· the latest research on women’s self-defense

· critiques and reflections on ways that research about self-defense is ignored and reasons why

· self-defense advice

Recent postings include:

· An Open Letter to Girls’ Life Magazine about their advice to girls to say NO, but not offering any backup (Martha McCaughey)

· An Open Letter to Vice-President Biden and the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault (Jill Cermele)

· Self-defense training should be part of a college’s sexual assault prevention and education programs (Martha McCaughey)

· Falling Short: The White House Task For to Protect Students from Sexual Assault (IMPACT Chicago Martha Thompson)

Jill Cermele, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at Drew University in New Jersey. The focus of her research is on women’s resistance to violence and the construction of gender. Along with McCaughey, Cermele edited the Violence Against Women special issue on self-defense. Two self-defense articles by Cermele are “Telling Our Stories: The Importance of Women’s Narratives of Resistance” published in Violence Against Women (2010) and “Teaching Resistance to Teach Resistance: The Use of Self-Defense in Teaching About Gender Violence” in Feminist Teacher (2004). Cermele has worked with Prepare Inc. to bring IMPACT self-defense training to faculty, staff, and alumnae at Drew.

Martha MCaughey, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology at Appalchian State University , one of the 16 campuses of the University of North Carolina. McCaughey’s academic focus is on the intersections of gender, sexuality, science, technology, social movements, and the media. McCaughey is the author of two books related to violence and self-defense. She edited with Neal King Reel Knockouts: Violent Women in the Movies (2001) and Real Knockouts: The Physical Feminism of Women’s Self-Defense (1997).