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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests

Image
For the past few weeks, I have been working on sending Freedom of Information Act (or FOIA) requests to different counties in central Illinois. By sending these requests, we are hoping to receive the jail bookings and arrest data in these counties over the past twenty years as they relate to human trafficking cases. Though most counties accept a letter of request, some have specific forms they require to be filled out in order to receive the information we require. Thus, I have been doing research on each county to determine not only if they have specific forms required, but to determine which office would best be able to fulfill my request, as each request cannot be sent to the same offices in each county. Most State Attorney’s offices are able to help us with our requests, but not all. For some counties, the Sheriff's office holds this information. So, through trial and error, I have worked to send out these requests to whichever office is best suited to help us. Due to the natur
Read more

Human Trafficking Awareness Month Panel Discussion on Education

Image
We just wrapped up our fifth annual Human Trafficking Awareness Month panel discussion at Millikin University and the event was a huge success. Around 40 students, faculty, staff and community members came out before the big snow storm to learn about the intersections of human trafficking education and training. We hosted Matthew Fuller, Human Trafficking Training Specialist at the Center for Prevention of Abuse in Peoria, Cindy Kuro, Prevention Educator from the Set Free Movement-Macon County, and Cheris Larson, Program Manager at Project OZ in Bloomington. The panel discussion focused on the educational opportunities, prevailing pedagogies on human trafficking, challenges to teaching about this hidden crime, and how to combat disinformation through learning opportunities. The panel discussion was sponsored by the Set Free Movement-Macon County and the Department History and Political Science at Millikin University. We are thankful for our wonderful advocates and educators in Central
Read more

HTRL Tote Bags

Image
Since our grant is ending this year, the students and I brainstormed a few fundraising ideas to be able to support paid research assistantships in the Human Trafficking Research Lab for future students. We thought tote bags would be a great way to achieve this and so the students and I designed an eye catching bag that would educate people wherever it went. If you donate more $30 to the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin we will send you one of these tote bags that will support future undergraduate research in the lab and help you raise awareness to human trafficking everywhere you go!  The bags are 100% cotton and printed locally from Oakwood Screen Printing based right here in Decatur, Illinois.  If you would like to donate to the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University you can make a donation in three different ways: 1) Make a credit card/debit card/EFT gift online at www.millikin.edu/give . Choose the “Millikin Fund” icon box and write “Human Trafficking Resea
Read more