Human Trafficking is topic of upcoming lecture featuring Greeneville native Dr. Hannah Britton

Tusculum’s Acts, Arts, Academia’s series continues on Tuesday, March 20, with the lecture, “Upstream Approaches to Preventing Human Trafficking.” The featured speaker will be Greeneville native Dr. Hannah Britton, director of the Center for the Study of Injustice and of the Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Initiative at the University of Kansas.

Dr. Hannah Britton

The lecture will be held on Tuesday, March 20, at 7 p.m. in the Behan Arena Theatre, lower level (on the parking lot side) of Annie Hogan Byrd Fine Arts Building on the Greeneville campus and is part of the Cicero Lecture Series hosted by Tusculum’s Arts Outreach program.

Dr. Britton is known globally for her work and research in the area of human trafficking. She is an associate professor in the departments of political science and women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Kansas.

Dr. Britton’s scholarship focuses on women and politics, gender and African politics, the prevention of gender-based violence and human trafficking. In her role as director of the Center for the Study of Injustice at the Institute of Policy & Social Research, she coordinates KU’s Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Initiative, which is a working group of faculty and students engaged in teaching and research about slavery, labor exploitation, and commercial sexual exploitation.

She is the lead researcher on a project in the Midwest examining the factors that may leave someone vulnerable to exploitation. She also coordinates a working group of faculty and graduate students using qualitative research methods in their teaching and scholarship.

Much of the current scholarship and research focuses on the prosecution of traffickers; however, Dr. Britton’s research team “works to identify a range of vulnerabilities that may leave someone open to extreme exploitation, including labor abuse and commercial sexual exploitation. These may include housing insecurity, poverty, lack of employment opportunities, undocumented status and limited English skills, just to name a few.”

While prosecutions are essential to eradicating trafficking, Dr. Britton argues that “by moving upstream to identify risks before exploitation has happened, policy makers and service providers can stop trafficking before it occurs.” Her research also explores “how different political policies can increase risks for exploitation, including cuts to vital social services, educational funding and poverty alleviation programs.”

Dr. Britton encourages policy makers and concerned citizens to expand what they think human trafficking is. She states that “much of the contemporary media attention around human trafficking focuses on the idea that people who are trafficked are abducted, are held in secret or are physically constrained in one location. In fact, much of the contemporary trafficking is occurring in plain sight. Training of law enforcement, medical providers, educators and social workers is essential to identify trafficking as it is happening.”

General admission tickets are $7 and will be available in the Behan Arena theatre lobby on the evening of the lecture. For more information, contact Tusculum Arts Outreach at 423-798-1620, or email jhollowell@tusculum.edu.