Big News in the HTRL!

In May 2023 before taking students to the Baltic States a colleague and I put together a data collection project proposal for the National Science Foundation D-ISN/RAPID entitled "Data Collection for Human Trafficking Recruitment and Responses in Forced Migration" focusing on Ukraine. We found out this week that the grant was recommended and funded! The grant is a rapid grant which means we will spend the next year collecting, compiling, and analyzing time-sensitive data (online and interviews) along the entire trafficking cycle – from recruitment, transfer, exploitation, and exit in Ukraine. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 provides an example of crises where war, displacement, and economic crisis fuel inequalities and increase vulnerabilities to human trafficking with ripple effects around the world. The case of Ukraine is a fruitful crisis case for data compilation because of the prevalent use of technology during the migration process which means that we as researchers can track human trafficking as it happened and evolved over the displacement timeline. We will be conducting interviews with partners in Ukraine and analyzing data from job posting and housing websites in order to uncover elements of trafficking recruitment after the full-scale invasion. Our team is Ukrainian-American and I am looking forward to the opportunity to dig deeper into recruitment processes during war and work on my Ukrainian language skills!

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