ASEEES Human Trafficking and the War in Ukraine Presentation

Last weekend I went up to Chicago for the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Conference. This is a picture of me presenting my paper on human trafficking as an outcome of Russia's war in Ukraine on a panel War in Ukraine: Displacement, Health Services, and Human Trafficking. The research focused on the characteristics of human trafficking, conditions that create vulnerabilities in war, and prevention tools used to combat human trafficking in war. It analyzes and compares three different periods of anti-trafficking work in Ukraine before 2013, 2014-2021, and 2022 as a within-case study comparison of three time periods. Human trafficking is recognized as an outcome of war throughout history in wars across the globe and based on my significant research on human trafficking in Ukraine before the 2022, I wanted to discuss my different observations as a result of the full-scale invasion. I always take the train up to Chicago since then I can work on the train on don't have to worry about driving and parking.

A few years ago this three day conference would have a handful of panels on Ukraine even after the first phase of the war started in 2014 but this year everything was about Ukraine and there were almost 90 sessions on focused on Ukraine. I got a free tote from Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) designed by Ukrainian artist Mari Kinovych and all I had to do was answer a few questions: What is the biggest priority for Ukraine as it rebuilds? The greatest challenge? I ended the weekend with lunch at Tryzub in Chicago's Ukrainian Village. I had traditional Ukrainian food varenyky and syrniki with a tryzub (the coat of arms of Ukraine) in powdered sugar. Definitely a wonderful way to close out and celebrate my ASEEES22 conference weekend and celebrate Ukraine.

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