Breaking the Chains of Trafficking: An Educational Program

Abstract

With popular television shows and films focusing on the issue of sex trafficking, many discursive constructions of the issue allow for a "script" to be followed and replicated in many anti-trafficking discourses. Ultimately, the constructions of the issue become a basis of understanding on sex trafficking, which can consequentially limit the availability and accuracy of anti-trafficking resources. From examining popular discourses and their construction of sex trafficking on a global and U.S. scale, to creating an educational program designed for college-level courses on the realities of trafficking, this project focuses on de-bunking the myths of sex trafficking on a local level. By using a framework of applied communication and social justice with a Transnational Feminist lens, this creative thesis project examined the ways in which students in select courses at Eastern Illinois University understood sex trafficking prior to the educational program, as well as after the presentations.

Date of Award	2015
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	Teresa Maria Linda Scholz (Supervisor)