Book Launch for "Trafficking Harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives and Experiences"

CrimSL presents a book launch for Trafficking Harms: Critical Politics, Perspectives and Experiences edited by Katrin Roots, Ann De Shalit and Emily van der Meulen (Fernwood Press, 2024) collects Canadian and international research showing that laws and policies on "sex trafficking" often end up harming the very women they’re supposed to protect.

Most of the book’s editors and contributors will be present and will say a few words, including:

• Elene Lam (Butterfly, Asian sex workers support and advocacy)
• Rashmee Singh (University of Waterloo)
• Katrin Roots (Wilfrid Laurier University)
• Emily van der Meulen (TMU)

This event is co-sponsored by the University of Toronto Women and Gender Studies Institute.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Refreshments will be available.

About the book

Amid the proliferating scholarship and often sensational public campaigns, Trafficking Harms offers fresh insights and critical analyses. The collection’s four thematic areas — Discourses and Representations; Law and Prosecutions; Policing and Surveillance; Migrant Labour Exploitation — examine an array of issues, including the contested definitions of human trafficking, the application of trafficking law and policy, the conflation of sex work and trafficking, the impacts of anti-trafficking frameworks on racialized communities, questions around “victims” and “traffickers” and much more. Showcasing a mix of scholarly research, public advocacy and first-person narratives, this book is the first of its kind in Canada. The authors include a diverse group of academics, legal advocates, frontline activists who work with migrant and sex-working communities, individuals who have been charged and/or convicted of trafficking offences and those who are directly impacted by trafficking law and policing, such as domestic and migrant sex workers.

Praise for Trafficking Harms

Based on empirical research with, especially, sex workers, migrant workers, and Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities, this book presents powerful details about the harms these populations experience due to anti-trafficking interventions and representations. It is a timely and persuasive collection — Kamala Kampadoo, York University

Register

Please register here to attend. We hope to see you there!

Accessibility

Please note that our Centre Lounge is on the second floor of the Canadiana Gallery building, with stair access only as there is no elevator. If you have any access needs or if there are any ways we can support your full participation in this session, please email crimsl.communications@utoronto.ca and we will be glad to work with you to make the appropriate arrangements.

Questions?

For further information, please contact event organizer Professor Mariana Valverde at m.valverde@utoronto.ca.