Stavroula Kyriakakis

Biography

Stavroula Kyriakakis completed Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis (2009) The Psychodynamic Program, The American Institute for Psychoanalysis of the Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Institute & Center (2000) MS, Columbia University School of Social Work (1997) BS, University of Pittsburgh (1995).

Research Interest

Area of research is gender based violence and the study of how women exercise agency in creating conditions of safety and well-being. Before pursing my Ph.D., I was the director of a domestic violence program in New York City, providing counseling and shelter to women and their children, many of whom were from Latin American and the Caribbean, South and East Asia, and North West Africa. This inspired my central research interest in intimate partner violence in immigrant communities, with special emphasis on the experiences and social service needs of Latinas. My last study examined the experiences of intimate partner violence and help seeking patterns of Mexican immigrant women. My current study involves the experiences and service needs of women engaged in transactional sex work in the Caribbean, an intensely marginalized community of women at heightened risk for exposure to violence and abuse.