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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦

@lauradean.bsky.social

710 followers 360 following 440 posts

Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University (she/her) 🇱🇻🇺🇦

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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Nov 18

My book Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia was published by Policy Press in 2020! Here is a blog post based on the book discussing the effectiveness #HumanTrafficking policy & the limits of policy solutions for wicked problems. www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2020/05/13/h...

How effective are policy approaches in combatting human trafficking? - Transforming Society

Laura Dean, author of 'Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia', discusses whether current human trafficking policies are effective, and how they might be improved. There is an accompanying poli...

www.transformingsociety.co.uk

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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 16h

I feel like I should be happy that my research on gender and politics is extremely relevant in #Latvia right now....but really it just makes me sad! Look for Gendering the Saeima: The Politics of Women's Representation in Latvia in 2026 🇱🇻

lv-zinas.bsky.social @lv-zinas.bsky.social · 17h

«Jūs gribat tikai stambulēt.» Saeima pirmajā lasījumā atbalsta izstāšanos no Stambulas konvencijas / Raksts

https://www.europesays.com/lv/29395/

Saeima ceturtdien, 23. oktobrī, pēc garām debatēm pirmajā lasījumā atbalstīja izstāšanos no Stambulas konvencijas. Dienu iepriekš to atbalstīja…

«Jūs gribat tikai stambulēt.» Saeima pirmajā lasījumā atbalsta izstāšanos no Stambulas konvencijas / Raksts - Latvija

Saeima ceturtdien, 23. oktobrī, pēc garām debatēm pirmajā lasījumā atbalstīja izstāšanos no Stambulas konvencijas. Dienu iepriekš to atbalstīja atbildīgajā

www.europesays.com

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 18d

We ran the Shoreline Classic 5K again this year, our local race sponsored by our Decatur Running Club. We both took 3rd for our age category and my husband who started running 3 years ago keeps getting faster. It was good to see colleagues and former students out on the course!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 21d

At the Dmytro Shtohryn International Ukrainian Studies Conference the University of Illinois Library today. Keynote from Emily Channell-Justice “A Drop in the Ocean: Ukraine’s Euromaidan Protests and New Imagined Communities” with some amazing Maidan photos!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 21d

Relieved to see the TIP Report for 2025 finally released after bipartisan pressure from Congress and an investigation by the Guardian! Staff at the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons were cut by more than 70% so I am thankful to see the 25th edition! www.state.gov/reports/2025...

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 22d

Went to the Decatur Public Library's Something Weird in Your Neighborhood: An Evening with Troy Taylor tonight at one of Decatur's most haunted places the Lincoln Theater. It was fun to hear about all of the ghost stories from Millikin too featuring Shilling Hall (where my office is located)! 👻

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 22d

The Human Trafficking Research Lab is participating in the Millikin Makers Market at homecoming. Here is a preview of all of the interesting things we will be selling with the proceeds going to support salaries for my student research assistants! www.humantraffickingresearchlab.org/2025/09/mill...

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 24d

Future Lawyers Experience at Millikin University today! It was fun to chat with students about political science and the different options for law school. We also had a keynote from Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lisa Holder White who shared her advice on legal careers with prospective students!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 26d

Coding data on our adjudication paper again today! I have about 100 cases left in this second round of coding so I am about halfway done.....it has taken us about five years to analyze half a million arrests and I am ready to send this paper out! #HumanTrafficking

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 26d

Looking forward to presenting our research next week (during a busy homecoming week) at the Dmytro Shtohryn International Ukrainian Studies Conference!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 28d

This and then a few weeks ago people were pissed that a professor got research money from the government to study same sex marriages in Latvia....sad to see Latvia take steps back while my own country is going back to the stone ages!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 28d

Wild news from Latvia this morning about the #IstanbulConvention! Guess I am going to have to revise the conclusion of my book Gendering the Saeima: The Politics of Women's Representation in Latvia now. The anti-gender movement is definitely alive and well in Latvia! 🇱🇻 eng.lsm.lv/article/poli...

Latvian lawmakers consider pulling out of Istanbul Convention

Less than two years on from the date when it ratified the the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention and Suppression of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, commonly known a...

eng.lsm.lv

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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · 29d

We had the Fall 2025 T.W. Samuels Lecture part of Hispanic Heritage Month tonight at Millikin featuring activist Samantha “Sam” Ramirez-Herrera. Many interesting themes from her talk about borders, adaptation, and the transformative power of good immigration policy.

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 21

#AcWri today in my local coffee shop working on our adjudication paper while the hotline paper is with my co-author. Adding new literature and doing a second round of coding to try and get it ready for publication soon. Every little bit of work gets it closer to publication!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 20

Arts in Central Park this weekend in Decatur. Definitely did not feel like fall weather at 85 degrees but it was fun to check out some local art and get ideas for my own art making hobbies. There were also mini donuts 🍩 which are one of my favorite foods!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 18

Haaaa I ask myself that question everyday! Winter is pretty dark but summer and fall are my favorite seasons there. How you can visit someday.

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 18

You can Latvianize anything. All men's names end in s so your name would be Stīvens and your name day was August 2!

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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 18

Haaaaa! Props for spelling the Latvia parliament correctly. The best garlic bread is a folk dance club too!

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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 18

You are welcome anytime though if you thought I talked about Latvia too much when I am in the US imagine how annoying it would be in Latvia. I have a story for like every building!

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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 18

Touche....there is this garlic bread in Latvia that I eat with so much garlic it gives me nightmares!

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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 18

Omg I wouldn't be able to sleep after that! Enjoy the ride....

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Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 17

Thanks to the Freedom Network for their very interesting training on criminal record relief. Many of the students who work in my Human Trafficking Research Lab become lawyers and so I am interested in learning more about how we can do this for survivors in our community!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 17

Getting ready for the Study Abroad Fair at Millikin! I will be there promoting my Politics of Borderlands class to the Baltic States and Finland in Summer 2026! I have Ukrainian candy & will be handing out information on the Fulbright program too. Dreaming of summer travel.....🇱🇻🇱🇹🇪🇪🇫🇮

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 13

#AcWri Saturday working on the last edits to our human trafficking hotline article at my local coffee shop. Hoping to send it off to a journal before I get the reviews for my book back at the end of the month.🤞

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 12

Getting ready for the Maker's Market at Millikin University for homecoming and I just got my fifth order of awareness raising tote bags! I fundraise all of the money to pay my research assistants and these bags have allowed me to keep paying students after our federal grant was not renewed!

Laura Dean 🇱🇻🇺🇦 @lauradean.bsky.social · Sep 11

Yoga on the Miller Quad at Millikin University tonight! Nice to relax with some self care after a trying news day with horrible political violence. Also saw like four students from my different classes and they are always surprised to see their professors out in the real world!