Dalla’s Nebraska Lecture will focus on family-facilitated human trafficking

Rochelle Dalla, professor of child, youth and family studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, will present the next Nebraska Lecture on April 30. 

Dalla will discuss her research on family-facilitated human trafficking, especially in India. The in-person lecture is 3:30 p.m. in the Nebraska Union’s Swanson Auditorium, with a question-and-answer session to follow. 

The event is free and open to the public. A livestream will be available on the Nebraska Lectures website.  

Dalla made her first trip to Mumbai in 2012, which she has described as such an emotionally draining experience that she swore she would never return. She has returned many times since. In India, she has put her longtime interest in marginalized women to work in understanding what drives sex trafficking.

Even as sex work passes through generations, none want their own children to enter the commercial sex trade. That is not a desired path — but often a necessary one. Family-based sex trafficking is seen as a means of survival in many of India's Dalit (formerly “untouchable”) castes who are discriminated against and marginalized. 

Dalla said it is important to focus on the political, economic and social systems that limit families’ options and lay the foundation for family-based sex trafficking. 

“We are not that different from the women who’ve participated in my research,” she said. “We share with them strengths, resilience and willingness to sacrifice for our families. We especially share a desire for our children to have better lives than we have had and do what is necessary … to make that happen.” 

Dalla, a Husker faculty member since 1996, received the 2018 Distinguished Research and Creative Career Award and the 2021 College Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Education and Human Sciences. Her research focus is on providing voice and visibility to marginalized female populations, including prostitutes and women trafficked into the commercial sex trade. 

The Nebraska Lectures are offered twice a year and feature high-profile presentations by distinguished Husker faculty who address topics of broad interest in an engaging, accessible format. Archived videos from each lecture are available on the event website.      

The Nebraska Lectures: The Chancellor’s Distinguished Speaker Series is sponsored by the Research Council, Office of the Chancellor, Office of Research and Innovation and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.