Dr. Carolyn M. West, PhD

Dr. Carolyn M. West is Professor of Clinical Psychology in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences and affiliate Professor in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She is a nationally recognized Black feminist scholar who investigates gender-based violence in the lives of African American women, with a focus on domestic violence, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.

Dr. West has authored more than 70 academic publications and is editor/contributor of "Violence in the Lives of Black Women: Battered, Black, and Blue" (Routledge, 2002) (winner of the American Psychological Association’s Carolyn Payton Early Career Award). She has taught courses on Sex Crimes and Sexual Violence, Family Violence, and the Psychology of Black Women for more than 30 years.

As a graduate student activist, who successfully filed a sexual harassment lawsuit, Dr. West has used her personal experience and extensive academic background to work as an expert witness and to conduct hundreds of workshops, keynote addresses, and training seminars. Her sub-specialties includes racism in pornography and the psychological impact of stereotypes on African American women. She is writer/producer of “Let Me Tell Ya’ll ‘Bout Black Chicks: Images of Black Women in Pornography.” Based on her groundbreaking content analysis of more than 4,000 adult film covers and decades of developing compelling slide presentations, it is a searing illustrated multimedia presentation that explores the historical origins of these images and helps the viewer to identify how racial stereotypes in pornography promotes sexual violence against Black girls and women.

Dr. West’s work on sexualized media images has been featured in Essence Magazine and NBC News. She has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post regarding high profile cases of sexual violence. She also has appeared on NPR and Free Speech TV.

Dr. West earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Missouri, has completed a clinical and teaching postdoctoral fellowship at Illinois State University, and a postdoctoral research fellowship in family violence research at the University of New Hampshire’s Family Research Laboratory. She has received the University of Washington’s 2013 Distinguished Teaching Award, 2016 Distinguished Research Award, and the Bartley Dobb Professorship for Study and Prevention of Violence (2005-2008).

Dr. West can be reached at www.DrCarolynWest.com