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Credit: Elena Shih
In 2024, the Human Trafficking Research Cluster (HTRC) celebrated the second book born out of its collaborative research with sex workers' rights and anti-trafficking organizations. Understanding Health and Care Amongst Sex Workers: Perspectives from Rhode Island (Palgrave Press 2023) by Claire Macon, Eden Tai and Sydney Lane, is based on unique research with sex workers conducted alongside Ocean State Advocacy, a grassroots sex workers' rights organization in Rhode Island. The book was commissioned by the Palgrave special series on New Advances in Sex Work, co-edited by HTRC Faculty Fellow Elena Shih, and includes an introduction by former undergraduate HTRC research fellow Julianna Brown ’19; Alpert Medical School ’24. In May 2024, the HTRC hosted a book launch for the event that included public comments by Lorelei Lee and Yin Q. The first HTRC book was White Supremacy, Racism, and the Coloniality of Anti-Trafficking, by Kamala Kempadoo and Elena Shih (Routledge 2022).
Separately, HTRC continued its ongoing collaborative research project with Red Canary Song, a grassroots coalition of migrant massage workers combating racist violence and human trafficking in New York City. HTRC undergraduate research fellows Arman Deendar ’25, Shravya Sompalli ’25, and Amy Xiao ’24 have built a digital map of policing violence against Asian massage work in New York City. The HTRC plans a Fall 2024 launch of the map, “Liberation Atlas.”