Eckerd professor, four students win grant to study human trafficking in Cambodia
Published March 3, 2020

Tiffany Velasquez ’21, a junior from Texas, visits Cambodia. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Velasquez.
Cambodia felt different from her parents’ native El Salvador and Mexico that Tiffany Velasquez saw as a child, but some things looked familiar.

“Seeing the children who were trying to sell you bracelets—or anything they could to make some money, to survive—was similar,” recalled the junior human development and psychology student from Spring, Texas. Still, witnessing firsthand the pervasive culture of human trafficking convinced Tiffany that she’d love the chance to return and study the difference between the plight of Cambodian children and other impoverished youths.

Thanks to the ASIANetwork Freeman Student-Faculty Fellowship (SFF), she will get her chance. Human Development Professor Nancy Janus selected Tiffany and three other students—Alicia Censabella, Jamie Myre and Alicen Nico—to be her research partners for a 21-day trip to “discover factors that may be impeding efforts to reduce child sex trafficking in Cambodia,” according to the project proposal.

Janus received word of the $24,400 award on Feb. 5. “I was actually watching a movie in my friend’s dorm room with another student who will be a part of the fellowship when [Professor Janus] called,” Tiffany remembered. “I said, ‘Don’t play with my emotions, Nancy.’ I was so excited!”

ASIANetwork, a consortium of more than 170 North American colleges, strives to strengthen the role of Asian Studies in undergraduate liberal arts education in an increasingly interdependent world. The SFF was awarded to seven schools this year, Janus said. This was the professor’s second time applying for this specific competitive program. In addition to completing the field study, the fellowship requires Janus and one student to attend the 28th Annual ASIANetwork Conference on April 17–19 in Columbus, Ohio, to prepare for their trip and see the work of last year’s awardees.

All four students traveling with Janus have taken a course with her or her Winter Term course Human Trafficking Field Study: Cambodia and have distinguished themselves with their passion for the issue. “They are just great students,” Janus said. “When we travel, I get to know them very well and vice versa.” Eckerd College has offered the Cambodian course at least six times during Janus’s time as a faculty member, and this fellowship trip will follow a similar pattern.

The research team will travel to several cities to collect data from and interviews with government agencies, charities, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions to localize the factors that make human trafficking in the sex and labor trades particularly pernicious in the region. Janus’s team will deliver the final report at the 2021 ASIANetwork Conference, shortly before Tiffany graduates.
https://www.eckerd.edu/news/blog/grant- ... -cambodia/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:58 pm
“Seeing the children who were trying to sell you bracelets—or anything they could to make some money, to survive—was similar,” recalled the junior human development and psychology student from Spring, Texas. Still, witnessing firsthand the pervasive culture of human trafficking convinced Tiffany that she’d love the chance to return and study the difference between the plight of Cambodian children and other impoverished youths.

The primary trafficking of children in Cambodia is economic (as in working selling things, begging, brick making, sold to do housework in villages etc.) and many arent trafficked but are economic migrant families, not sexual so I'm not sure why they make child sex trafficking the headline here, the economic side is also what this student has identified, although I guess that sex generates a bigger headline. I wish them well but hope they spend time with some of the organizations who have been doing this work for a long time and dont sit on riverside and pull out the same tired old cliches.

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:58 pm
Thanks to the ASIANetwork Freeman Student-Faculty Fellowship (SFF), she will get her chance. Human Development Professor Nancy Janus selected Tiffany and three other students—Alicia Censabella, Jamie Myre and Alicen Nico—to be her research partners for a 21-day trip to “discover factors that may be impeding efforts to reduce child sex trafficking in Cambodia,” according to the project proposal.

Perhaps they could look at the impeding factors that certain Christian organizations who make up outlandish stories and lies about who the people involved in sex trafficking use to get money instead of focussing on where the real problems are and taking away money from transparent organizations who are doing real work in this area

I dont see any method to research this without propositioning children or their parents. I guess if you have a grant you might be able to use it to buy your way out of prison.

Sex trafficking is a hot topic in the US now. With the assumption that if it’s an big issue in the America, so it must be exactly the same kind of big issue in Cambodia, as well. Adding child to the above just adds a coolness to the said hot topic. AKA, Somaly Mam, part 2.

Similar to the expat that was angry that US Embassy in Cambodia didn’t have any native Spanish speakers to serve him.

That’s my view about this Florida college sabbatical research program.

I'm sure any research won't be ground breaking given the location and subject matter has sporned an entire self perpetuating industry over the years with very little apparent return for the vast sums spent on it. I'm sure the situation on the ground will look exactly the same by the end of this new decade regardless of all of the studies, NGO's, money and resources devoted towards it.

Tiffany is kinda hot, she legal?

she should just stay in the USA and study it there..

Don’t play with my emotions, Nancy!

fake aid

but,

I think we need some discernment here.
There is no doubt that many western organisations have done a great deal in slowing the flow of pedos to cambodia - and in strengthening other countries response to those that travel here.
Imagine if was still open slather.
It is the God-bothers and other scammers that are the problem - not all of those who work in this field.

Properly conducted research is almost always useful in forming good policy too.
But unfortunately so many PhD candidates come here and conduct studies that are riddled with naive western prejudices.
I have to say that USA students are particularly guilty of this - it probably stems from the well acknowledged fact that americans are less capable than most in realising that their philosophical certainties are not the only way of looking at the world.
(i am not pot stirring here, about americans, just presenting a widely observed reality)

So, i am not going to sneer at these student's project - but maybe when their paper is published, i will have to read it first.