Course Syllabus

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SYLLABUS

Human Trafficking in a Global Context

Semester & Location:

Summer 2026 Session 1 - DIS Stockholm
Type & Credits:

Summer course - 3 credits

Faculty:

Polina Smiragina-Ingelström
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Time:

See Course Summary below

Classroom:

1E-508

Major Disciplines:

Human Rights, Criminology, Legal Studies, Anthropology

Related Disciplines:

Program Contact:

EPSSupport@dis.dk
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Course Description 

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to human trafficking as a global crime and a serious human rights violation. Moving beyond surface-level definitions, the course examines human trafficking through multiple disciplinary lenses, including criminal justice, victimology, sociology, public health, and anthropology, to develop a nuanced understanding of how trafficking operates, who it affects, and how societies respond.

Students will explore the key legal and policy frameworks governing anti-trafficking efforts at the international, regional, and national level, and critically assess their effectiveness. The course covers a range of trafficking forms, including sexual exploitation, forced labor, domestic servitude, child trafficking, and organ trafficking, with particular attention to the structural conditions (poverty, inequality, migration, and marginalization) that drive vulnerability.

Through a combination of lectures, guest speakers, film screenings, field studies, an international workshop, and hands-on assignments, students will engage with real-world cases, survivor perspectives, and policy debates. The course culminates in a roundtable in which students present original research on human trafficking in a US state and propose evidence-based policy recommendations, alongside the presentation of individually designed anti-trafficking awareness campaigns.

 

Course Objective

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Define human trafficking and distinguish between its different forms of exploitation, drawing on key legal frameworks;
  • Apply victimological theories to analyze how victims of trafficking are identified, recognized, and responded to;
  • Critically assess the role of criminal justice institutions, including law enforcement, courts, and prisons, in both protecting and failing victims of human trafficking;
  • Analyze the gendered, racialized, and structural dimensions of human trafficking and explain how intersecting inequalities shape vulnerability and exploitation;
  • Evaluate the strengths and limitations of key anti-trafficking policy approaches and engage critically with ongoing debates in the field;
  • Interpret and critically assess media representations of human trafficking and their implications for public awareness, policy, and victim support;
  • Demonstrate awareness of emerging and underexplored forms of trafficking;
  • Apply course knowledge to an independent research context by producing an original analytical essay on human trafficking in a US state, including evidence-based policy recommendations;
  • Communicate research findings clearly and critically in both written and oral formats, and engage constructively with peer feedback.

Faculty

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Polina Smiragina-Ingelström

Polina Smiragina-Ingelström is a victimologist. She completed her PhD at The University of Sydney and her postdoctoral fellowship at Stockholm University. She serves as Sweden’s National Expert within the EU Anti-Trafficking Hub, Executive Secretary of the European Society of Criminology (ESC) Victimology Working Group, and advisory board member of the Journal of Modern Slavery. Her research is at the intersection of criminology, sociology and anthropology with a focus on victimhood, gender and help-seeking behavior. Polina’s work is shaped by extensive experience with NGOs and international organizations such as  OSCE,  UNODC, and UN-Migration, where she has worked directly with vulnerable populations, including refugees and trafficking survivors. 

Readings

Main legal Instruments (other legal instruments will be referred to during classes):
  • The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (referred to as the Palermo Protocol).
  • The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Persons, which was adopted in 2005 (referred to as the Council of Europe Trafficking Convention).
  • The EU Directive 2011/36/EU (referred to as the EU Directive).
Academic readings (reading or familiarizing with, see syllabus):
Andrijasevic, R. (2007). ‘Beautiful Dead Bodies: Gender, Migration and Representation in Anti-trafficking Campaigns’, Feminist Review, 86: 24–44.
Boukli A., Papanicolaou G., Dimou E., (2024) Constructing ‘indigenous people’ reproducing coloniality’s epistemic violence: a content analysis of the U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report, draft chapter in forthcoming ed. Faulkner E.A., Modern Slavery in Global Context. (handed out in paper)
Brunovskis, A., & Surtees, R. (2008). Agency or illness—The conceptualization of trafficking: Victims’ choices and behaviors in the assistance system. Gender, Technology and Development, 12(1), 53-76.
Christie, N. (1986). The ideal victim. In E.A. Fattah (Ed.), From Crime Policy to Victim Policy (pp. 17-30). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Amy Farrell A. & de Vries I, (2019) Measuring the Nature and Prevalence of Human Trafficking in The Palgrave Handbook of Human Trafficking, 147–162
Fehrenbacher A.E., Musto J., Hoefinger H., Mai N., Macioti P.G., Giametta C. & Calum B. (2020) Transgender People and Human Trafficking: Intersectional Exclusion of Transgender Migrants and People of Color from Antitrafficking Protection in the United States, Journal of Human Trafficking, 6:2, 182-194,
Fohring, S. (2018a). Introduction to the special issue: Victim identities and hierarchies. International Review of Victimology, 24(2), 147-149.
Gallagher, A. T. (2015). Two cheers for the trafficking protocol. Anti-Trafficking Review, (4), 14-32.
Gallagher, A., & Skrivankova, K. (2015, November). Human rights and trafficking in persons. In the 15th Informal ASEM Seminar on Human Rights. Background Paper. ASEM.
Heber, A. (2018). The hunt for an elusive crime–an analysis of Swedish measures to combat sex trafficking. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in criminology and crime Prevention, 19(1), 3-21.
Hill L. & Heffner M.K. (2024), Successes and Challenges in Implementing a Human Trafficking Screening Tool in a Local Detention Center, Journal of Applied Social Science, 18(1) 241–258
Idemudia U., Okoli, N. Goitom M. & Bawa S. (2021), Life after trafficking: reintegration experiences of human trafficking survivors in Nigeria, Journal Of Migration, Health And Social Care, 17(4): 449-463.
Johansson, M. C. (2022). ‘Love is in the Air’ Exploring recruitment into prostitution by abuse of a position of vulnerability as human trafficking. Bergen Journal of Criminal Law & Criminal Justice, 9(2), 41
Judge, A., Murphy, J., Hidalgo, J., & Macias-Konstantopoulos, W. (2018). Engaging Survivors of Human Trafficking: Complex Health Care Needs and Scarce Resources. Annals of Internal Medicine, 168(9), 658–663.
McAdam M. & Gerasimov B (2022), Editorial: Traffickers, Anti-Trafficking Review, issue 18: 1-11,
McCabe, H, Stickle, W and Baumeister, H (2022) Forced Marriage and Modern Slavery: Analysing Marriage as a “Choiceless Choice”. Journal of Modern Slavery, 7 (2): 33-57.
Miller, J. (2011). Beach boys or sexually exploited children? Competing narratives of sex tourism and their impact on young men in Sri Lanka’s informal tourist economy. Crime, law and social change, 56(5), 485-508.
Nazaria V., Ciubotaru E., Lozan O. & Terzioglo S. (2023), The Health Impacts on Victims of Human Trafficking in the Republic of Moldova, Journal of Human Trafficking, 9(4): 461-473, 
O’Brien, E. (2013). Ideal victims in trafficking awareness campaigns. In K. Carrington, M. Ball, E. O’Brien & J.M. Tauri (Ed.), Crime, Justice and Social Democracy (pp. 315-326). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
O'Connell Davidson, J. (2011). Moving children? Child trafficking, child migration, and child rights. Critical social policy, 31(3), 454-477.
Ollus, N. (2016). Forced flexibility and exploitation: experiences of migrant workers in the cleaning industry. Nordic journal of working life studies, 6(1), 25-45.
Oram, S., Abas, M., Bick, D., Boyle, A., French, R., Jakobowitz, S., ... & Zimmerman, C. (2016). Human trafficking and health: a survey of male and female survivors in
England. American journal of public health, 106(6), 1073-1078.
Panda P. (2023) Human trafficking in the urgent care setting: recognizing and referring vulnerable patients. Journal Urgent Care Medicine, 17(6):13-22.
Piper, N., Segrave, M., & Napier-Moore, R. (2015). Editorial: What's in a name? Distinguishing forced labour, trafficking and slavery. Anti-trafficking Review, 5, 1-9.
Rafferty Y. (2021) The Identification, Recovery, and Reintegration of Victims of Child Trafficking within ASEAN: An Exploratory Study of Knowledge Gaps and Emerging Challenges, Journal of Human Trafficking, 7:2, 145-167 
Ramaj K. (2023) The Aftermath of Human Trafficking: Exploring the Albanian Victims’ Return, Rehabilitation, and Reintegration Challenges, Journal of Human Trafficking, 9:3, 408-429.
Smiragina-Ingelström, P. (2024). 'Reframing the narrative: the processes and outcomes of men’s victimization in human trafficking'. In Seymour, K., Pease, B., Strid, S., & Hearn, J. (Eds.). Interconnecting the Violences of Men: Continuities and Intersections in Research, Policy and Activism (1st ed.). Routledge.
Schoultz, I. & Smiragina-Ingelström, P., (2023). ’Access to justice and social rights for victims of trafficking and labour exploitation in Sweden’. In Piilgaard Porner Nielsen, S. & Hammerslev, O. (eds) European Welfare Rights in Practice: Regulation, Professionals, and Citizens. London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 147-167.
Surtees, R. (2013). Trapped at Sea. Using the Legal and Regulatory Framework to Prevent and Combat the Trafficking of Seafarers and Fishers. Groningen Journal of International Law, 1(2).
Veljko Turanjanin and Jelena Stanisavljevic ì, (2024), Human trafficking and forced prostitution under article 4 of the European convention on human rights, German Law Journal, (25) 262–288
Vijeyarasa, R. (2010). The Impossible Victim: Judicial Treatment of Trafficked Migrants and Their Unmet Expectations. Alternative Law Journal, 35(4), 217–222.
Wilson, M., & O’Brien, E. (2016). Constructing the ideal victim in the United States of America’s annual trafficking in persons reports. Crime, Law and Social Change, 65(1-2), 29– 45.
Readings of non-academic reports from International Organizations will be presented during the course as well as online resources such as databases.
 

Approach to teaching

The course is taught through a combination of interactive lectures, guest lectures, film screenings, field studies, and interactive methods including group work, debates, workshops, and critical discussions. Students will have the opportunity to engage with practitioners and experts working directly in the field, participate in workshops and visit sites that bring course themes to life beyond the classroom. 

 

Evaluation

Evaluation of students' work during the course will be based on the following components, with the following relative weight: 

Assignment

Percentage of final grade

Class participation: Attendance, preparation & ACTIVE participation in class

40 %

Media Assignment

 

20%

US Trafficking Assignment

30%
Debate 10%

 

Class Participation The evaluation of this component will take into consideration the following aspects: 

Attendance: attendance in all classes and field studies is mandatory. See academic handbook for further information. You are urged to be punctual, particularly where guest lecturers and/or films are concerned. If you miss multiple classes the Academic Director will be notified and they will follow-up with you to make sure that all is well.  Absences will jeopardize your grade and your standing at DIS.  Allowances will be made in cases of illness, but in the case of multiple absences you will need to provide a doctor’s note.

Preparation: preparation for each lecture is a course requirement. See reading list in syllabus, but check when and what to read in the calendar preparing for classes. Please be aware that there may be slight changes in the reading assignments during the course and various handouts will also be distributed, but you will be provided with ample time to properly prepare.

Participation: Active participation in all class sessions is required, and forms an important part of the student's grade for this component. Participation should preferably reflect the student's critical capacities and knowledge of the course material (see ”preparation” here above). 

The aim of the student should be to contribute constructively to forwarding meaningful, relevant dialogue and discussion among the group; in practice, this means that expression of one's personal views should be backed up by references to pertinent readings, materials, etc.

The course heavily emphasizes your own engagement and active participation. Much of the learning in this course is dependent on how much effort you put into your own explorations and research, not least in connection with the different types of assignments.

Films  Several films and documentaries will be shown during the course.

 

DIS Academic Regulations

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

Course Summary:

Course Summary
Date Details Due