What I Am Thinking About Now: Elena Shih, "Transnational Racial Formations of Freedom: Civilian Vigilantism, Ethical Consumption, and Global Human Trafficking Rescue"

CSREA Conference Room, Hillel 303, 80 Brown Street

Please join us on Tuesday, April 26 at 12 - 1pm for a "What I Am Thinking About Now" presentation from Elena Shih, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies, and Faculty Fellow at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Her talk is titled: "Transnational Racial Formations of Freedom: Civilian Vigilantism, Ethical Consumption, and Global Human Trafficking Rescue"

Drawing on 40 months of ethnographic fieldwork on the anti-trafficking movement in China, Thailand, and the US, this talk addresses how global anti-trafficking activism has informed new racial formations of freedom and abolition from so-called "modern day slavery." From sex worker rehabilitation programs in Beijing and Bangkok, to the consumption of slave free goods in Los Angeles, to civilian vigilante rescue operations in Providence, this talk brings distinct empirical sites into conversation as sites that reveal the racial and sexual politics of human trafficking rescue. 

“What I Am Thinking About Now” is an on-going informal workshop/seminar series to which faculty and graduate students are invited to present and discuss recently published work and work in progress. All are invited to attend and participate.

RSVP[email protected]Location of seminar may change if the number of RSVPs received exceeds the capacity of our conference room.