Guest lecture | Laura Dean (Millikin University) | Identifying Potential Human Trafficking Recruitment During Humanitarian Disasters and Russia's War in Ukraine

We are delighted to welcome IOS Visiting Fellow Laura Dean for a guest lecture on 14 July at 14:15. In her talk, Identifying Potential Human Trafficking Recruitment During Humanitarian Disasters and Russia's War in Ukraine, she will offer insights into her current research project.

The event is organized by Denkraum Ukraine, in collaboration with the ScienceCampus and IOS Regensburg.

Abstract:

Humanitarian disasters increase vulnerabilities, as well as opportunities for exploitation, particularly of displaced persons and refugees. Since the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, over 8.1 million refugees have left the country, and millions are internally displaced. This war, displacement, and subsequent economic crisis fuel inequalities which can lead to human trafficking in Ukraine with ripple effects around the world. The increase of online technologies used during displacement has led to the creation of dozens of job boards, home hosting sites, and chat groups on social media used to seek housing and employment. Technology plays a role in facilitating human trafficking, and this research aims to mitigate this by examining online recruitment tactics for human trafficking that can be applied to future displacement events and dramatically improve the disruption of human trafficking activity. I will share preliminary findings from our dataset on online recruitment technologies during the first 1.5 years of the war consisting of: i) 482,000 collected and cleaned online posts from Telegram channels; ii) interview data from Ukrainian anti-trafficking organizations (7 in person, 3 virtual); and (iii) 18 months of call data from 88,939 phone calls to Ukraine's anti-trafficking and migration support hotline.

Bio:

Laura Dean is Associate Professor of Political Science at the School of Social Sciences, Millikin University. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Kansas in 2014. Her research focuses on gender and politics, with particular emphasis on public policy, migration, and gender-based violence in the post-Soviet region. From 30 June to 25 July 2025, she is a Visiting Fellow at IOS Regensburg, where she is conducting research on Human Trafficking Recruitment During Russia’s War in Ukraine.