Human Trafficking Research Lab @Millikin

Today, I enjoyed hosting a table at Millikin University for new students and parents who were visiting campus to register for classes in the fall. I had several visitors at the table and felt like I was able to strike up some engaging conversations about human trafficking awareness and prevention. The individuals who stopped by were curious and open-minded, taking in the statistics and facts I was able to quickly give them. Several people commented that they had no idea of the information I had given them and thanked me for educating them. A couple individuals even thanked me for my work in combating human trafficking. As someone who is passionate about social justice issues and general kindness among humanity, I often find myself frustrated that the small part I’m doing doesn’t seem to make a difference. My desire is to make a large impact. I am passionate about helping individuals who are overlooked and cast aside. Experiences like today spur me on and encourage me to continue fighti...

In my ten years of teaching in the US I have only had one political science student from my region of the world and when the universe gives you a student who speaks one of your research languages you better take advantage of that opportunity! Kocha Changelia was a Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD) student from the U.S. Department of State at Millikin University back in 2022 and since he was a gifted student and spoke Russian, I thought we could work on this paper together under the auspices of the Human Trafficking Research Lab. Now two years and many revisions later our article " The Social Construction of Human Trafficking Victims in the Russian Media " was just published in the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research! Congratulations to Kocha on his first peer-reviewed publication and thanks for all of his hard work.

My Human Trafficking Research Lab research assistant Diana and I went out to the Macon County Law Enforcement Center to train high school students at the Jerry J. Dawson Civic Leadership Institute on human trafficking. Since most recruitment happens at 14-17 in the US it was great to engage young people in our community on this topic and learn more about their approaches to social media (which is a large recruitment tool for youth)! The head of the leadership institute Dr. Juanita Morris heard about the lab and saw us on the news so it was also great to know that our PR is paying off in useful ways in the community.