I’m a professor of Legal Studies at University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I study the legal, cultural, and social dimensions of human trafficking and migration—issues I’ve been engaged with for over twenty years. As a sociologist and sociolegal scholar, my work examines how law, culture, and social institutions contribute to structural violence and inequality.
My current book project, tentatively titled From the UN to Cambodia: The Rise of International Human Trafficking Law and its Uneven Outcomes for Marginalized Populations, explores why human trafficking has recently gained such widespread international attention when the issue itself isn’t actually new. The book also examines how framing trafficking as a crime—rather than a human rights violation, public health issue or other type of problem—has shaped problematic outcomes for marginalized populations, and often obscures the structural violence that contributes to trafficking in the first place.
My research is distinctive for the practitioner perspective I bring to academic scholarship. Before entering academia, I worked for over a decade with NGOs focused on trafficking, migration, and child exploitation in Cambodia, Brazil, and the United States. This field experience informs my theoretical work and keeps it grounded in everyday lived realities.
I hold a Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Irvine, with additional degrees in Anthropology, Social Science, and Gender Studies. My research has been published in journals such as Law & Policy, Mobilization, and Dignity, and supported by institutions such as the National Science Foundation and Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley. I continue my community-oriented work by engaging with academic-practitioner networks such as the Academic Council of the UN, the Global Learning Community, and Freedom Network, as well as serving on the Board of Directors for two nonprofit organizations.