M4C Logo AHRC Logo

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

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, and aims to liberate victims from criminal enslavement (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). To critical scholars, trafficking, while exploitative, provides a means to escape or survive the afterlife of transatlantic slavery, rather than representing a modern form of slavery in itself.  My research asks survivors of human trafficking how they define and are defined by modern concepts of freedom and slavery.  Do their perspectives complement or juxtapose against these theoretical strands?

Human trafficking theory has rarely been survivor-informed (Dang and Leyden, 2021).  This project will lay foundations for future empirical research which includes trafficking survivors as contributors to, rather than solely subjects of, academic theory.

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

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.

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.