The Human Trafficking Research Lab at Augustana University!


Big news the Human Trafficking Research Lab has moved to Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota! We are working to get our research space set up here and I am hoping to be able to hire a student research assistant so that we can continue our localized human trafficking research in South Dakota. I also have lofty goals of learning more about possible changes to the law to make it more victim-centered and hope to join a human trafficking task force in the state. 

Trying to get some of the funds transferred to Augustana has been a four month long challenge but I am hoping it will work out (keep your fingers crossed for us). Millikin said I could not employ my previous research assistant past May, but thankfully I am able to pay her myself over the summer our of my own pocket so we can continue our narrative policy framework project. I am invested in continuing this research and supporting my previous research assistant to hopefully present at a conference in the future. It was difficult because I was the only faculty member in the major so the student lost her advisor, only faculty member in her discipline, and her job in the span of a month (something that would be difficult for anyone to handle but she has been doing a great job coping with the huge changes). 

My hope is to compare our research with newspapers in Illinois to newspapers in South Dakota. There are large discrepancies with the laws in both states and I look forward to learning more about my new state through my research. It is daunting to start the lab over again in a new state but I am hopeful that we will have a supportive community that will be welcoming to me and my students in South Dakota.

Here are our new Human Trafficking Research Lab tote bags! If you would like to support our work and student research at Augustana, please donate via this link.

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