Dr. Sklar will discuss how we have traditionally considered violence, particularly intimate partner violence, as a private matter between individuals and how this perception is linked to our thinking about romance and jealousy, which have been romanticized in books and movies. This leads to a hands-off approach until something happens, at which point the criminal justice system may become involved. However, by then the damage may have been done. A public health approach to violence suggests that a focus on the environment and the community can help us prevent violence before it causes harm and create better supportive environments at the same time. Dr. Sklar will look at how we traditionally portray violence in stories and movies in addition to examining various social science theories of violence. He will describe the multi-disciplinary public health approach that has been used over the past 10 years and how it has changed the way we think about violence.

Dr. Sklar's Biography

Dr. David P. Sklar is the Associate Dean of Graduate Medical Education at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is the Medical Director at the Center for Injury Prevention Research and Education, a Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Department of Internal Medicine at the School of Medicine, an elected member of the Board of Directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and is certified with the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Sklar earned his medical degree from Stanford University and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico. He then completed a fellowship in critical care and emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. A strong interest in international health led Dr. Sklar to extensive involvement in medical projects such as relief assessment, disaster response and primary health care in Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Ecuador, Tanzania, Nepal, New Guinea and the Philippines. He is the author of La Clinica: A Doctor’s Journey Across Borders in which he recalls how his earliest experiences in a remote Mexican clinic helped shape his career as an emergency physician and educator.

 

The Café Scientifique was co-sponsored by Montana INBRE and the College of Letters and Science at Montana State University.