FIRST ANNUAL INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING October 29-31, 2009 University of Nebraska – Lincoln

FIRST ANNUAL INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING:
“WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW”

The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers from many disciplines, as well as government and non-governmental agencies who have responsibility for anti-trafficking efforts, to develop a research agenda.

IF YOU HAVE RESEARCH RESULTS OR IDEAS, or an interest in studying human trafficking, this conference will put you in touch with other researchers in the field. It will put you in touch with people who are”on the ground”in combating human trafficking, who see the effects of trafficking in their work. It will also put you in touch with government agencies and others who fund anti-trafficking efforts, and who will fund knowledge-creation, evaluation, and methodology-creation work. You are welcome to come to hear papers and presentations, and especially to present your own work or ideas.

IF YOU NEED OR FUND RESEARCH IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING, this conference will put you in touch with others, nationally and internationally, engaged in anti-trafficking efforts, as well as scholars with an interest in providing knowledge and methodologies to study the problems surrounding human trafficking. You are welcome to come and describe the problems you face, particularly those for which researchers might offer expertise and solid research-based knowledge, and to help set a research agenda for the future.

FORMAT: There will be three periods, each with a plenary session, followed or preceded by multiple break-out sessions for papers and presentations. Audiovisual equipment will be available.

•    Friday Morning, October 30:”What we know:”Researchers can present their work in human trafficking, and government and NGO officials can present the facts, stories, and systematic knowledge about human trafficking within their areas of responsibility.
•    Friday Afternoon, October 30:”What we need to know:”Government and NGO officials and researchers can describe the gaps in their knowledge of how human trafficking works, it’s effects, it’s extent, the value of anti-trafficking efforts, etc., and describe the problems they face in their work.
•    Saturday Morning, October 31:”Where do we go from here?”After break-out sessions to collaboratively define research agendas and discuss funding opportunities in various areas of human trafficking, the conference will convene in a final discussion to suggest fruitful future directions.
•    Other activities: A cocktail party, prominent speakers at Friday’s lunch and supper, and Friday supper entertainment. There will be plenty of opportunities to meet others interested in the topics.

PAPER AND PRESENTATION TOPICS: We solicit papers from all academic disciplines, including all social sciences, economics and business, law, journalism, womens’ and gender studies, public health, math and statistics, education, etc. We solicit speakers and researchers from government, NGO, and foundations to present papers or talks. Some topic areas include, but are not limited to, what is known and what is unknown in these areas:

    Contributing causes
    Successes and failures in combating human trafficking
    Corporate social responsibility and involvement
    Trafficking routes and patterns: identifying recruitment, transportation modes, and routes
    Prostitution demand and human trafficking
    Illegal immigration, human smuggling, and human trafficking
    Corruption and human trafficking
    The human cost
    Finding and Identifying victims
    Rehabilitation of victims
    Economic analyses of human trafficking
    The extent of the problem domestically and internationally
    Methods for estimating the extent of trafficking
    Public awareness in combating human trafficking
    Organ trafficking
    Trafficking in children and adoption fraud
    Developing and training anti-trafficking workers and rehabilitation specialists
    Bills of rights for trafficked persons
    Analyses of laws and needed laws
    Analyses of international cooperation and institutions
    Evaluation of anti-trafficking and victim rehabilitation programs
    What our organization would like to know
    Funding of research in human trafficking

VENUE: Sessions will take place at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska, across the street from the University of Nebraska.

FORM AND DEADLINE: An abstract of the paper to be presented or presentation to be made should be submitted to Roméo Guerra – rguerra2@unl.edu – by March 30, 2009. Acceptance notifications will be made by June 30, 2009.

REGISTER NOW! FOR THIS CONFERENCE AT: http://conferences.unl.edu/trafficking

If you have questions please call 402-472-5733. Or for more information go to: http://conferences.unl.edu/trafficking.