Human Trafficking Research Lab @Augustana University

Saturday, March 23rd the human trafficking research lab attended the Set Free Forum at a church I had never heard of before by the Decatur Airport. I used GPS to find the church but still missed some important turns that made Jasmine and I arrive later than expected. Sadly, I was also on call for the Growing Strong Sexual Assault Center 24-hour hotline so I had to make sure I had cellular reception at all times. This meant that I was not able to attend most of the important speakers and instead stayed in the lobby at the research lab table answering the few questions asked. I was underwhelmed by the number of attendees but really enjoyed the event. I enjoy being able to network with other community members who are aware of the importance of combatting human trafficking not only in the Decatur community but worldwide. I also was able to learn more about local religious organizations. I especially appreciated the petition Dr. Dean made up to fight against the construct...

As I have begun the process of completing an annotated bibliography and have compiled the pre-existing literature, it is evident that work on this detail on the lives of migrants is still developing. The literature I have come across pertains to countries in the eastern hemisphere, detailing their migration into Europe. Although, comparing this literature may prove to be beneficial by allowing us to discern the ways in which the migration process of Mexicans relates or differs. Additionally, if the research on how migrants utilize social networks is sparse, then our work could be used to expand the literature.             A particularly interesting article authored by Rianne Dekker and Godfried Engbersen entitled “How Social Media Transform Migrant Networks and Facilitate Migration” offers insight to the significance of social media within the migration process. Dekker and Engbersen elaborate on how migrants util...

One of the many skills I have been able to gain and strengthen through my position on the Millkin Research Lab is my spreadsheet creation and maintenance on programs such as Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. I have grown fond of creating spreadsheets and am using the skills at my current job at a sexual assault center to make sheets of client info to make keeping up with past clients easier. At work, I have an actual computer with an efficiently sized monitor when working on those sheets. Sadly, my outdated laptop makes the task force spreadsheet upkeep much more time consuming and difficult because I am only able to see one collum at a time which makes the aggregate analysis of data a dragged out process. This week I worked on identifying how task forces were established whether that be through the state legislature, as ordinances, or grants. One of the most surprising thing I noticed during that task was that a good amount of task forces have been formed through a club named the Zon...

On January 31st, I met with Dr. Laura Dean, for whom I will be an assistant of research, to discuss the course of action the human trafficking research lab would take this semester. This meeting established the topic of study this research lab would pursue and what steps would be taken to accomplish it. However, before settling on a topic, Dr. Dean presented me with an array of potential research topics that we could expand upon throughout the semester. There were four topics: tracking convictions of human trafficking in Illinois, tracking news stories of human trafficking in Illinois, looking for other imprisoned victims, and examining migrant profiles. I utilized my free time over the weekend to research each of these potential topics to give me an idea for what sort of literature existed and what I would envision myself devoting time to. Given my proficiency in Spanish and my interest, I decided on examining migrant profiles would be the best topic for me to direct my efforts t...

I have been working on reading Heterogeneous Perspectives in Coalitions and Community-Based Responses to Sex Trafficking and Commercial Sexual Exploitation: Implications for Practice written by Lara B. Gerassi and Andrea Nichols published on the Journal of Social Science Research. This article has given me some background on how individuals within task forces can be driven to fulfill the agency's goals and mission. One thing I enjoyed about this article was the focus on demographics from task force membership including degree type, race, experience with human trafficking, age, and gender because all these factors play a part in decision making. This article is important because it allows for more insight into the makeup of task force membership, unlike our research which doesn't focus so much on the personal opinions or political beliefs of members within the task forces we had analyzed through our research. I have been using Raul Pacheco-Vega's Excel Conceptual Synthesis ...

As we arrived in Springfield for the task force meeting I realized I left my driver's license in my car by campus and was unsure if I would be able to get into the federal building. A few minutes after pressuring the security to accept a photo of my ID on my phone they unenthusiastically let me in. As we sat down we meet representatives from many different anti-human trafficking organizations and began introducing themselves and the work they do for victims. I enjoyed learning more about other organizations within our state that are proactive in ensuring victims have the resources to regain control of their lives. Although the presentation was only for a few minutes and informal I did succumb to the angst because of all the older and more experienced professionals in the room. I, however, enjoyed the practice for future presentations to audiences of experienced researchers that will be able to question the research in ways that the task force could not. After the presentation took ...

The Human Trafficking Research Lab has buttons for our students to wear and display during our events and research presentations! These are some coveted buttons and were almost all gone after our first event last week.