Grant for Human Trafficking Research

Associate Professor and Department Chair of International Studies Dr. Heather Smith-Cannoy has been awarded $6,000 by the American Philosophical Society. Funded by the competitive Franklin Research Grant Program, this award will support Dr. Smith-Cannoy’s four week research trip to the Thai-Burmese border later this year. Her project, “Statelessness and Human Trafficking: An Investigation of Rohingya Victims of Thai Traffickers in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region: 2012-2015” will examine whether and how the status of “statelessness” affects the likelihood that the Rohingya, who reside primarily in Burma, fall victim to human traffickers. This research will involve collecting immigration data in Bangkok, interviewing Thai officials to learn how policies in the region have contributed to the influx–and inhibited the rights–of the Rohingya, and meeting with anti-trafficking and human rights organizations working on the Thai-Burmese border. Ultimately this project will help Dr. Smith-Cannoy develop a theory that illustrates how government policies and statelessness have contributed to the human trafficking crisis in the greater Mekong sub-region.

More about Dr. Smith-Cannoy’s research is available here.

January 2015