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Bee Damara

Political Science and International Studies, University of Leicester

Thesis title:

Survivor Activists: Perspectives on the Relationship Between Human Trafficking and Colonialism in South Africa

‘New abolitionist’ anti-trafficking interventions often prioritise rescue and ‘liberation’, without considering how trafficked individuals themselves define freedom. Running parallel to, yet often excluded from ‘new abolitionist’ activities, a movement of survivor activists is emerging, whose priorities differ from the dominant anti-trafficking discourse (Dang and Leyden, 2021). South African survivors I work alongside describe exiting trafficking into post-apartheid conditions of poverty and unemployment, leaving them contemplating returning to exploitation as a means to survive. For them, rescue is not synonymous with liberation.

Two prominent theoretical strands exist in the analysis of ‘modern slavery’. The dominant ‘new abolitionist’ movement perceives trafficking as a modern continuation of transatlantic slavery (Bales, 2017). Critical perspectives alternatively view the afterlife of slavery as situated within global racial and gendered “systems of domination” that have persisted beyond abolition (O’Connell-Davidson, 2022:2). Racialisation is understood as underlying the segregation of poverty and people in the global south, with western hegemony influencing international law in its favour (Sharma, 2020). Anti-trafficking protocols are underpinned by anti-immigration agendas that maintain these structural inequalities (Aradau, 2008; Brace, 2018; O-Connell Davidson, 2022). Trafficking, while exploitative, may provide a means to escape or survive the afterlife of transatlantic slavery, rather than representing a modern form of slavery in itself. 

My research explores how survivors’ perspectives complement or are juxtaposed with these theoretical strands. 

Research Area

  • Diplomacy and International Relations
  • Political Science and International Studies

Publications

Jannesari, S., Damara, B., Witkin, R., Katona, C., Sit, Q., Dang, M., Joseph, J., Howarth, E., Triantafillou, O., Powell, C., Rafique, S., Sritharan, A., Wright, N., Oram, S., & Paphitis, S. A. (2024). The Modern Slavery Core Outcome Set: A Survivor-Driven Consensus on Priority Outcomes for Recovery, Wellbeing, and Reintegration. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 25(3), 2377-2389. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380231211955

Conferences

Kindness in Research: Trauma-informed perspectives.
19th July 2022, 10.00-19:00, Strand Campus, King's College London.


Other Research Interests

  • Human Trafficking/labour exploitation health outcomes
  • Decolonial methodologies
  • Academics with Lived Experience

Memberships


Feminism, Global Ethics and Political Theory (FemGEPT) 

The Feminism, Global Ethics and Political Theory (FemGEPT) cluster of HyPIR (UoL) encompasses a broad research agenda with a strong theoretical, feminist, ethical and critical angle. The cluster members teach and conduct research in dialogue with some of the most important themes of our times: from animal and human rights to war and intervention, from protest, resistance and civil disobedience to non/violence, peace and pacifism. It is also concerned with the questions and problems of citizenship, migration, slavery, the politics of protection and biopolitics, applying theories of gender, sexuality, race and caste to the ethics of health, politics of identity, inequality and development. The cluster engages with continental, liberal and postcolonialism thought, as well as international relations theory and the ‘everyday’. 

Inspiring Ethics - Inspiring Ethics is a group of researchers who want to reshape ethical relations in community-based research and change the bioethical model of university ethics. We are particularly concerned with university and NHS ethical processes around participatory, cross-cultural, survivor, user-led and international research. 

The Reject LoungeWe're a group of researchers, activists, artists and/or self-proclaimed 'rejects', united by the wish to see a change in academic cultures, systems and practices.  We want to see more equitable, meaningful, joyful and sustainable academic-community collaborations.

Midlands Migration and Citizenship Network


Podcasts

Damara, B. and Jannesari, S. (Hosts). (2022, December 07). Episode 1: Bee Damara on Theory (no. 1). In Anti-racist Qualitative Health Research. Qualitative Applied Health Research Centre.