RiceUniversityRPLP
Religious Responses to Human Trafficking, 2013
October 24, 2013
On October 24th students, academics and community members filed into the McMurtry Auditorium on the Rice campus to attend the Religion and Public Life Program’s panel discussion on “Religious Responses to Human Trafficking.” Guest scholars Prof. Kimberly Hoang, Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Boston College, and Prof. Richard Flory, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Research at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California, served as panelists alongside RPLP Director Prof. Elaine Howard Ecklund.
The discussion explored the efforts that religious groups have made to combat human trafficking and their subsequent impact on the issue. As Ecklund noted, human trafficking is an internationally recognized human rights violation that continues to affect all countries and regions of the world. Advocacy groups, governmental agencies, NGO’s and local congregations address the issue from various perspectives and with distinctive approaches. RPLP’s goal in hosting a scholarly discussion on religious responses to human trafficking was to bolster our understanding regarding the complexities of the issue. Flory reiterated the importance of this type of forum when he suggested that it “provides society space to stop and reflect on the situation.” Throughout the discussion, he and Hoang offered interesting insight on human trafficking, particularly within the international context.
Photo credit: Samuel Martinez (Samuel Seth Photography)
Religious Responses to Human Trafficking, 2013
October 24, 2013
On October 24th students, academics and community members filed into the McMurtry Auditorium on the Rice campus to attend the Religion and Public Life Program’s panel discussion on “Religious Responses to Human Trafficking.” Guest scholars Prof. Kimberly Hoang, Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Boston College, and Prof. Richard Flory, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Research at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California, served as panelists alongside RPLP Director Prof. Elaine Howard Ecklund.
The discussion explored the efforts that religious groups have made to combat human trafficking and their subsequent impact on the issue. As Ecklund noted, human trafficking is an internationally recognized human rights violation that continues to affect all countries and regions of the world. Advocacy groups, governmental agencies, NGO’s and local congregations address the issue from various perspectives and with distinctive approaches. RPLP’s goal in hosting a scholarly discussion on religious responses to human trafficking was to bolster our understanding regarding the complexities of the issue. Flory reiterated the importance of this type of forum when he suggested that it “provides society space to stop and reflect on the situation.” Throughout the discussion, he and Hoang offered interesting insight on human trafficking, particularly within the international context.
Photo credit: Samuel Martinez (Samuel Seth Photography)