LAII Presents Lecture, Book-Signing, and Symposium on "Borderline Slavery"

October 16, 2012


This week, the Latin American & Iberian Institute (LAII) has organized several events to promote scholarship, public awareness, and effective public policy to combat human trafficking in Mexico, the United States, and our shared border region. Across the world, more people are living in slavery today than at any time in human history--even in the United States, which prides itself on being a free society. Each year, thousands of people are trafficked within and across our borders to serve as sex slaves or un-free labor in U.S. homes, fields, and factories. Many enter via our southern border with Mexico, after having been trafficked within or across Mexico from other parts of the Americas and beyond.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, from 4:00-5:00p.m. in the LAII Conference Room, the LAII presents a lecture with Susan Tiano, Director of the Latin American and Iberian Institute and co-editor of the recent publication, "Borderline Slavery: Mexico, United States, and the Human Trade," an edited collection of essays exploring human trafficking in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as a regional expression of a pressing global problem." A reception and book-signing will follow the lecture from 5:00-6:00 p.m. The entire evening is free and open to the public.

Tiano and Murphy-Aguilar's book sheds light on the contexts and causes of trafficking, offering policy recommendations for addressing it that do justice to border communities' complex circumstances. This book focuses on both sexual and labor trafficking, moving thematically from global to regional levels to provide a grounded and policy-relevant approach that examines the problem through the eyes of scholars and researchers from various fields, as well as journalists, public officials, law enforcement personnel, victims' advocates, and NGO representatives.

Reviewer Kathleen Staudt, University of Texas at El Paso, wrote "This magnificent, yet painful-to-read volume offers theoretically rich yet grounded and accessible chapters on modern-day human trafficking in human beings. The volume covers the global to local: world economic systems and United Nations actions to various parts of the U.S.-Mexico border and the NGO activists and law enforcement personnel therein."

This lecture, book-signing, and reception serve as the opening ceremonies for an intensive, one-day symposium on "Borderline Slavery," which the LAII is holding on Thursday, Oct. 18, from 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. in the UNM Student Union Building (SUB), Ballroom A. This symposium consists of three panel presentations composed of experts whose work relates to human trafficking and immigration along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and beyond. A special keynote luncheon will be held from 12:30-1:30p.m. in the SUB in Lobo A & B, where Sociology Professor Timothy Dunn, Salisbury University, will speak about his research regarding border militarization. All symposium events, including luncheon, are free and open to the public.

Event Information:  For details concerning the Wednesday night lecture, book-signing, and reception, please see the event flyer. For more comprehensive information about the Thursday symposium, please see the "Borderline Slavery: Contemporary Issues in Border Security and the Human Trade" webpage. For additional comments or questions, please contact the LAII at laii@unm.edu or 505.277.2961.

Information provided in part by UNMToday and Ashgate Press.