Migrant workers harvest corn on a farm in California. (Image courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on flickr. License CC BY.)
Instructor(s)
Mitali Thakor
MIT Course Number
21A.445J / WGS.272J
As Taught In
Spring 2015
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
This course explores the issue of human trafficking for forced labour and sexual slavery, focusing on its representation in recent scholarly accounts and advocacy as well as in other media. Ethnographic and fictional readings along with media analysis help to develop a contextualized and comparative understanding of the phenomena in both past and present contexts. It examines the wide range of factors and agents that enable these practices, such as technology, cultural practices, social and economic conditions, and the role of governments and international organizations. The course also discusses the analytical, moral and methodological questions of researching, writing, and representing trafficking and slavery.