The Department of Gender Studies Speakers' Series invites you to a presentation by Dr. Christina Doonan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Gender Studies, Memorial University, Anti-Trafficking Legislation as Victim Rescue: How the United States Adopted is Current Frame

Human trafficking as a contemporary humanitarian issue is as provocative as it is popular.  In the United States, scholars and activists have critiqued the state’s approach to human trafficking as being too narrow in scope, confused in focus, and punitive in practice.  While the state’s policy approach has garnered much critical response, there has been minimal scholarly attention to how that approach was adopted.  Looking at the legislative process that led to the U.S. Victims of Violence and Trafficking Protection Act of 2000, this presentation illuminates three mechanisms by which the state adopted a framing of human trafficking that is heavily focused on women and child victims of sex trafficking.