Academics

Hello! This is my first blog post and I am going to talk about my experience as a new Odyssey Scholar for the past two months.

The first thing I did in August was come up with a research question. It had to sum up the entire two years as a question to answer. I came up with this. How do survivors of sex trafficking in the United States cope with their psychological trauma and how do organizations support their recovery? How can these experiences be artistically represented through visual arts? After I was done with my research question, I started writing my elevator pitch. I gave an elevator pitch to my family and community about my project. I am doing a project on researching human sex trafficking mainly in the United States and creating a series of artworks to represent what I have learned. As I wrote it, I had to talk about who I am, and introduce myself in a way that captures my identity as a Scholar. I talked about the goals and overall mission of my project, the value of my research, and how I’m contributing to the sex trafficking prevention field and my community. Public speaking was a huge challenge I had to learn to overcome when presenting my elevator pitch. I had to practice over and over again to even present it to the 9 people in the classroom. Eventually though, I was confident enough to stand up and get it over with. As I was speaking, I surprisingly found myself enjoying talking to everyone about what I am so passionate about. That was the first type of speech I have had to do like that in my life, but now I feel much better about having to do things like that in the future. After the elevator pitch was over, I started researching and collecting sources on Jstor to put in my annotated bibliography. I ended up finding this source called “Trafficking and Security in the North American Arctic” by Mike Perry that I was really interested in. The report estimated that up to 30 percent of young people in Nunavut could be victims of trafficking, and there have been documented reports of Inuit

families being offered CA$15,000–20,000 for their underage daughters. I had no clue that the Arctic is actually a big topic in the human trafficking conversation. I thought of the north as this barren icy landscape with hardly any crime, but that is very much not the case. Here is a quote from the article that absolutely shocked me. “Homeless youth in Anchorage, Alaska have been identified as being disproportionately vulnerable to trafficking, and the results of a study last year in 10 US and Canadian cities revealed Anchorage as having the highest prevalence of trafficked homeless youth in the United States.” That is what I found the most surprising while researching these past two months. I also created my year plan, which I am going to use to keep myself organized and get me to stay on track. Being an Odyssey Scholar has already pushed me beyond my comfort zone so much, and I really look forward to continuing my research and artistic representation of such an important topic.

Hi! This is my second blog post and I am going to talk about my October experience as an Odyssey Scholar.

This time of the year in Odyssey was filled with a lot of research. On October 2nd, we went on a field trip to the UNM library and browsed through their catalog to try to find sources for the annotated bibliography. I ended up finding this one very niche autobiography written by a young woman who was sex trafficked, starting from when she was little.The book included letters, drawings, and photographs about her story. It was a thick book, but I was so into it I almost finished the whole thing in one sitting. I later borrowed it myself. I have written three annotated bibliographies. The first one was a  report called "2021 Federal Human Trafficking," written by the Human Trafficking Institute. I read this source because it helped me get all the statistics that I have been researching and looking for. Having credible statistics will help me with my research, as it tends to be scattered when looking in different areas. Having correct and recent data will let me be more reliable to my community. I also read a scholarly journal article by Janie A. Chuang, “Exploitation Creep and the Unmaking of Human Law” which is published in the The American Journal of International Law. This fits into my work because it describes some issues with broadening legal terms. As I am not very experienced in the field, I have most likely been doing so without thinking about it. My project is sensitive, so using the right language will be crucial.

Besides reading the book and the two articles, I also conducted an interview with Val DiBernardo, a third year law student who works at the Dixon Scholl Carrillo law firm. She interned for an organization called the National Center on Sexual Exploitation in Washington D.C. for a few years, which is the main reason I interviewed her. We discussed the challenges survivors of sex trafficking face, the vulnerability of certain groups to sex trafficking, the work of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and similar organizations in combating sexual exploitation and trafficking, the legal process of holding corporations accountable for allowing traffickers to use their platforms for illegal reasons, survivors’ traumatic situations can lead to substance abuse and mental health issues, which in turn makes survivors seem “unreliable” to the public or jury, the problems in the U.S. immigration system relating to passing trafficking victims through borders, the shame and self-blame that follows survivors throughout their healing process, the stigma associated with being a sex-worker, the importance of language and using the right types for different ages and groups to get the answers you need, the flexibility and understanding people who work with survivors need to have, the resources these survivors have, the usage of pornography to exploit minors and the people who use these platforms in illegal ways, the misconceptions surrounding child sexual exploitation, and even AI in the world of human trafficking and the laws surrounding that.  I learned a lot about the stigmas and judgement that survivors of sex trafficking face, and the leniency I should have when speaking to them. You have to be extremely understanding. One of the learning curves is understanding how to communicate with survivors, and that each survivor deals with their trauma differently. I think the research and the interview have both pushed me into the right direction with my project.

November Blog

Hi! This is my third blog post and I am going to talk about my November experience as an Odyssey Scholar.

This month, I did a little bit of research and went out into the Albuquerque community as well. I looked at two articles that I thought were interesting. I read Maggi W.H. Leung's scholarly book Chinese Women and the Cyberspace,which elaborates on human trafficking spread through online databases in China. The book was published by Amsterdam University Press. The chapter I read, “On Sale in Express Package Chinese Female Bodies as Commodities in Cyberspace,” goes more into detail. I also read a popular report published by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), which is an academic institute facilitating international cooperation in the global struggle against terrorism. The report characterizes the phenomenon of human trafficking, reviews trafficking routes in Africa, and discusses the connection between terrorism financing and the trafficking of women by presenting case studies. I learned that people living in areas affected by armed conflict have a higher risk of abuse, violence and exploitation, including human trafficking. The risk of human trafficking is also related to the high number of refugees. The need to escape war and persecution may be exploited by traffickers.

This November, I also visited the New Mexico Dream Center, a nonprofit organization that exists to help end human trafficking. The NMDC has many different resources to help survivors, but I was most curious about their location in Albuquerque, on Central. I had never heard of it before, which makes me sad. It is a great resource. Called “The Harbour”, the place provides shelter for youth who were trafficked. Young people can come in, have warm meals, hot showers, clean clothes, and hang out with the option of getting further help if they want to. I wanted to see what the place was like for my community observation. I am new at talking with professionals and even adults, so it was an accomplishment to me that I arranged the tour and spoke with her so professionally. I got Covid during the last week of November, so I missed a lot of school and fell behind in Odyssey. I hope to catch up in December and get back on track. I also started thinking about my art and researching some inspiration. I was really drawn to the Manhattan Freedom Murals, specifically one on 25 Bridge Street by Victor Ash. The mural represents the story of Melanie Thompson. She was 12 years old when she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution in New York City. I am not always the biggest fan of murals, but this one is beautiful. I also looked at some art on the Office for Victims of Crime website. I found this painting by Jaqueline Baerwald, called “Inhale the Future, Exhale the Past.” According to the website, “This painting (acrylic and copper on books and wood) submitted by Jacqueline Baerwald represents transformation. According to the artist, this piece poses a series of silent questions about the transition from victim to survivor and beyond. The process involves so much more than removing a victim from a dangerous situation. To truly be free, transformation must happen within one's thoughts, beliefs and emotions. A new story must be written in one's mind and heart, replacing suffocating fear with breathtaking dreams.” The details and the texture used are truly beautiful. I have attached photos of both pieces below.

Hello! Wow, time is flying by fast and I can’t believe how much work I’ve put into this project over the past few months. I am proud of myself, which, as an overachiever, doesn’t always happen. This past semester, my progress included research, fieldwork, and networking. Starting in August and September, I came up with my research question, A.K.A. How do survivors of sex trafficking in the United States cope with their psychological trauma and how do organizations support their recovery? How can these experiences be artistically represented through visual arts? I gave an elevator pitch to my family and community about my project. I started my annotated bibliography, wrote my year plan, and figured out what I hoped to accomplish this year. In October, I went on a field trip to the UNM library and browsed through their catalogue to try to find sources for my annotated bibliography. I read one of the best books I’ve ever read, besides The Fault in Our Stars, of course. Written by Nina Berman, the book, an autobiography called Miss Wish, tells the story of a woman from London who was trafficked through personal documents, photographs and drawings. Nina Berman met the woman, Kimberly Stevens, when she was young and they remained in contact for 25 years. Berman helped Stevens get out of her life of addiction, abuse and sex trafficking. It changed my entire perception of what sex trafficking is. It is truly beautifully traumatizing. While continuing to find other sources, I also conducted an interview with Val DiBernardo, a third-year law student who works at the Dixon Scholl Carrillo law firm. She interned for an organization called the National Center on Sexual Exploitation in Washington D.C. for a few years, which is the main reason I interviewed her. We discussed the challenges survivors of sex trafficking face, the vulnerability of certain groups to sex trafficking, the work of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation and similar organizations in combating sexual exploitation and trafficking, the legal process of holding corporations accountable for allowing traffickers to use their platforms for illegal reasons, survivors’ traumatic situations can lead to substance abuse and mental health issues, which in turn makes survivors seem “unreliable” to the public or jury, the problems in the U.S. immigration system relating to passing trafficking victims through borders, the shame and self-blame that follows survivors throughout their healing process, the stigma associated with being a sex-worker, the importance of language and using the right types for different ages and groups to get the answers you need, the flexibility and understanding people who work with survivors need to have, the resources these survivors have, the usage of pornography to exploit minors and the people who use these platforms in illegal ways, the misconceptions surrounding child sexual exploitation, and even AI in the world of human trafficking and the laws surrounding that.

In November, I also continued to work on my annotated bibliography, which was getting more detailed with every entry. Besides that, I also visited the New Mexico Dream Center, a nonprofit organization that exists to help end human trafficking. The NMDC has many different resources to help survivors, but I was most curious about their location in Albuquerque, on Central. I had never heard of it before, which makes me sad. It is a great resource. Called “The Harbour”, the place provides shelter for youth who were trafficked. Young people can come in, have warm meals, hot showers, clean clothes, and hang out with the option of getting further help if they want to. I wanted to see what the place was like for my community observation. I also started thinking about my art and researching some inspiration. I was really drawn to the Manhattan Freedom Murals, specifically one on 25 Bridge Street by Victor Ash. The mural represents the story of Melanie Thompson. She was 12 years old when she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution in New York City. I am not always the biggest fan of murals, but this one is beautiful. I also looked at some art on the Office for Victims of Crime website. I found this painting by Jaqueline Baerwald, called “Inhale the Future, Exhale the Past.” According to the website, “This painting, (acrylic and copper on books and wood), submitted by Jacqueline Baerwald, represents transformation. According to the artist, this piece poses a series of silent questions about the transition from victim to survivor and beyond. The process involves so much more than removing a victim from a dangerous situation. To truly be free, transformation must happen within one's thoughts, beliefs and emotions. A new story must be written in one's mind and heart, replacing suffocating fear with breathtaking dreams.”

In December, I worked to get another interview while still finishing up my annotated bibliography and doing my literature review, as well as making a slideshow to informally present what I’ve been working on to the other Odyssey Scholars. I ended up getting in touch with Kathleen Cormona, a victim advocate for the New Mexico Department of Justice that was willing to let me interview her. When I walked into the interview, I was expecting to interview one person. Kathleen, (Kacy), surprised me by bringing in her colleague, Barbie. Kacy has been working in the victim advocate field since 2007, while Barbie is slightly less experienced, working as her compliance person. Kacy is a civil rights advocate, but specific to victim's rights. In the court of law, if somebody is convicted at trial, they get an appeal, and victims have a right to be informed. Their job is all about victim rights.​​ They have this set of guidelines and statutes, which is why the job exists. They are an arm of the prosecution. Part of their primary function is to ensure that the victims of crime are followed. So certain crimes are laid out within that act and they are solely responsible for making sure that they work with these individuals and get them through the court process. They try to take the input of the victim and try to create something that everybody can get behind.

We talked about the ins and outs of being a victim advocate, the idea of being a mediator between the court and the victim, the idea that older people who have been trafficked for a long time learn to see trafficking as a sort of norm, the distrust victims tend to have in the law enforcement and police, the prosecution of cases and the court system, undercover work, sex-work and prostitution, human behavior, having empathy and honesty when talking to victims, giving people options, short-term and long-term solutions, “don’t-do’s” when working as a victim advocate, working with juveniles, drug addiction, using your personal experiences as a guide when speaking to people, the resources available to trafficking victims, collaboration with other organizations, medical care, the barrier that forms when law enforcement initially engages these individuals negatively, the misconceptions of what human trafficking looks like, trafficking across borders, familial trafficking, the length trials, appeals, and court can go, and the process of healing even when a trial doesn’t go your way.

So far, I have gained a lot of insight about the importance of being transparent and casual when talking to victims of trafficking, and understanding that things are never going to go as planned. Part of working in this field is learning how to navigate that. I will use the general information I learned in the future when preparing and researching ideas for my art, and I also will use the empathetic tools I learned about when considering how I’m going to represent this issue. I learned a lot about the stigmas and judgement that survivors of sex trafficking face, and the leniency I should have when speaking to them. You have to be extremely understanding. One of the learning curves is understanding how to communicate with survivors, and that each survivor deals with their trauma differently. There's nothing more educational in this field than getting a survivor's perspective, because there is the “cookie-cutter" example, but there’s always something to be learned from a survivor's experience and who they are as a person. Survivors may use language that seems inappropriate to the hoi polloi or a courtroom, but I have to understand that it’s something they’ve faced every day, and things that might be “crass” to the general public might not be for them. For example, describing explicit sex acts is just a regular thing for them. Understanding the emotional response I must have when talking to survivors will be important if I want to interview them later in my project. I also need to understand that sex trafficking is not just the common movie-like scenario of kidnapping a little girl in a van. It happens in the less-approved parts of society.

Obviously, I encountered some challenges in every single part of the project. I had a very hard time finding good scholarly sources that I could use for my annotated bibliography that were 1. Related to my project, and 2. Written about the United States. I ended up having a couple that were about other countries, which was actually good to read about because most of the time I could see the connection between the United States and other places when it comes to trafficking. I had a hard time coming up with a good place to visit for my community observation, but that was all solved when I found the Dream Center. It was also really interesting to hear about the Dream Center in one of my later interviews, and how the New Mexico Department of Justice collaborates with them. I have a continuous challenge when it comes to figuring out what my final product will be. What am I going to paint? Who knows. Who knows. It is still an everyday struggle. I also had a problem because I am pretty bad at speaking to adults, but I am getting better at it every time I have to talk to people for this project. I have to pretend I know what I’m doing, which is sometimes hard when you’re speaking to people who have known what they’re doing for a long time. That aspect is always interesting.

I have mentioned my annotated bibliography and talked about the general idea of it. Well, there are some specific things I learned while researching. I have researched more about one topic these past few months than I have probably researched about everything in my life. I learned that the research process is extremely important before going out and doing things in person. If I had walked out in August and tried to conduct an interview like I did last week, the interviewee would probably laugh in my face because of the incorrect and (most likely offensive) language I would have used. One of the first articles I ever read was actually about the importance of using precise language when speaking about human trafficking, as inconsistency causes confusion, which is dangerous in a world where one crime can get you life in prison and the same crime worded differently can get you a month in jail. I stayed on track with my annotated bibliography up until the very end, where I started to fall behind and it was difficult for me to find sources that would work for me. Next semester, I will stay consistent throughout the entire semester.

What was most interesting and surprising to me about my Odyssey experience was the amount of “yes’s” I got. It was like doing rejection therapy, but I never got rejected. I kept asking random people who seemed way too busy and sophisticated if I could talk to them, and not once did I receive “no” as an answer. The worst response I got was “I actually am not as well informed in that area as my colleague, blank, is. I will send you their email.” I realized that most people out there are willing to help you if you ask nicely. That might make sense because people in the anti-human trafficking field are usually used to working with and helping younger, more “vulnerable” people. I know that some other Odyssey scholars were not as lucky as I was when it came to getting interviews and community observations handed to them. Overall, I have had a lot of fun continuing my project and am really looking forward to next semester, where I will be starting my first piece of art.