Annual Debra L. Lee Lecture: “Confronting the Cycles of Slavery”

An estimated 21 million men, women, and children around the world are held in modern forms of slavery including forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking today, similar to systems of slavery in the past, are driven by economic, political, and social dynamics that have evolved over generations. The 2015 Debra Lee lecture will spotlight the development of contemporary human trafficking markets, consider the lessons learned from the legacies of abolition, and inform how communities can disrupt the cycles of slavery.