Human Trafficking and Services to Survivors Panel Presentation
The horrible realities of global modern-day slavery are being brought to light with increasing frequency and nowhere more so than here at Santa Clara University. On April 20, a panel presentation was co-hosted by the Religious Studies Department and STOP-HT (“Santa Clara University Teaching, Outreach, and Programs against Human Trafficking”), a faculty/staff group based out of the RS department. The panel, entitled “Human Trafficking and Services to Survivors,” featured three esteemed scholar-activists whose work is dedicated to helping survivors of human trafficking locally and around the globe. In front of a packed Benson audience of over 80 students and faculty, each panelist presented and discussed how their work supports survivors of forced labor trafficking in their journey back to freedom, recovery, and wholeness.
The panelists included Lynette Parker (Clinical Faculty at the SCU Law School and recent winner of the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award and the Santa Clara County Beacon of Light Award), Ruth Silver Taube (Supervising Attorney of the Worker’s Rights Clinic at the SCU Law School); and Catherine Ngo (Anti-Trafficking Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in San Jose). Karen Peterson-Iyer introduced and moderated the panel, and several RS faculty members who are part of STOP-HT were key organizers, including Jan Giddings, Teresia Hinga, and Maria Castañeda-Liles. Non-RS members of STOP-HT also involved were Jonathan Fung (Communication) and Tatyana Foltz (CAPS).
STOP-HT continues its work at Santa Clara against human trafficking by way of ongoing study, discussion, and raising awareness through on-campus events.