Call for Papers: ‘Engaging Impacted Communities’

Guest Editors: Chris Ash and Ethan Levine

The Anti-Trafficking Review calls for papers for a special issue themed ‘Engaging Impacted Communities’.

Within the anti-trafficking sector, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers have increasingly recognised the need to engage people with lived experience in the development and implementation of research, policies, and practices that affect them. Over the past decade, toolkits, articles, and other resources have emerged recommending principles and practices for meaningfully engaging survivors without causing harm. However, these recommendations remain largely untested. There is still much to learn about the impact of participating in anti-trafficking work, whether as a consultant, staff member, or other professional, on people with lived experience of human trafficking.

Moreover, although the ongoing conversation regarding survivor engagement is critical and necessary, anti-trafficking work involves, impacts, and thus must engage with a broad range of communities, many of whom already have their own approaches to how impacted people shape and lead their work. Anti-trafficking efforts have profound implications for people in the sex trades, people who use drugs, people who are subjected to police surveillance and criminalisation, people who are housing insecure or unhoused, immigrants/migrants, and precarious workers, among others. Each of these communities is overlapping, each includes individuals with and without lived experience of human trafficking, and each is impacted by anti-trafficking policy and practices.

The aim of this issue of Anti-Trafficking Review is to examine engagement with impacted communities. We welcome submissions on community engagement within the anti-trafficking sector as well as models of engagement in other fields from which anti-trafficking practitioners can learn. ‘Impacted communities’ is conceptualised broadly, including both people with lived experience of trafficking, communities regularly targeted for exploitation, and people impacted by anti-trafficking policy and interventions. We invite submissions that address community engagement in research as well as policy and practice.

Some of the questions that contributors may consider include:

• What models of survivor engagement have been implemented in the anti-trafficking sector? Which of these show the most promise? Which have been the least effective or most harmful?
• What models of lived experience engagement have been developed and implemented by other movements and sectors, such as labour rights, mental health and substance use, disability rights, sexual and domestic violence, migrant rights, or sex worker rights? How do these models compare to anti-trafficking models?
• Has there been cross-pollination of lived experience engagement models across movements? How have anti-trafficking lived experience engagement models affected the self-organising of other communities such as people in the sex trades, people who use drugs, migrants, unhoused populations, precarious workers, and people subjected to disproportionate police surveillance and criminalisation? What are the unique lived experience engagement needs of these communities?
• How can we evaluate the impact of specific meaningful engagement practices in the anti-trafficking sector? This includes effects of meaningful engagement practices on survivors working in anti-trafficking, communities impacted by human trafficking and anti-trafficking interventions, and on efforts to address exploitation
• What ethical issues arise when impacted communities engage in anti-trafficking work?
• How can we build models of engagement that do not require disclosure of lived experiences or identities?
• How can anti-trafficking professionals collaborate with people across impacted communities without engaging in ‘mission creep’ or co-opting resources?

 

Deadline for Submissions: 1 June 2026

In addition to full-length conceptual, research-based, or case study thematic papers, we invite book reviews, collaborative interviews, and short, blog-style articles related to the issue’s theme. We particularly encourage contributions from service providers, advocates, and people with lived experience.

Word count for full article submissions: 5,000 - 7,000 words, including footnotes, author bio, and abstract.

Word count for short article submissions: 1,200 - 1,500 words, including footnotes and author bio.

We advise those interested in submitting to check out the journal’s style guide and submission guidelines and email the editorial team at atr@gaatw.org.

 

Special Issue to be published in April 2027.