Samantha Cupolo with the Binghamton Anti-Trafficking Project
The United Nations estimates that approximately 20 to 40 million people globally are victims of modern day slavery and human trafficking. This number is difficult to estimate and the victims are hard to identify because this type of crime often goes undetected. Human trafficking is easily one of the most pressing issues in modern society, and Binghamton University’s Human Trafficking Data Project (HTDP) seeks to “bring together a coalition of researchers, trafficked persons, students, service providers, advocates and government representatives to understand the conditions that contribute to human trafficking and to address existing gaps in anti-trafficking policy.” Binghamton University students have the opportunity to participate in this research and make a contribution to the HTDP’s current efforts, which involves gathering data from T-Visas, the visas that allow victims of human trafficking and their familiy members to temporarily stay and work in the United States, and creating a codebook to analyze the applications.
Samantha Cupolo, a senior majoring in Philosophy, Politics, and Law, has been involved with this project since she first started at Binghamton. As a member of the first group of students selected for the Source Project, she was able to learn about human rights, international law, and how to properly conduct research. This provided Cupolo with a unique way to explore her research interests and introduced her to Dr. Suzy Lee, the head of HTDP, who helped her get involved with this research.
Cupolo worked in a team with fellow undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors to combine efforts and make this project a reality. Her primary task as a research assistant was to work on the annotated bibliography. “My main job was to do literature reviews, which is just a fancy term for saying that I was in charge of reading through past research and current literature on human trafficking to gather data for our project,” she said. “[I] focused on gathering data regarding definitions of terms, industries involved in trafficking, data, causes and coercion, connections to immigration, and international policies regarding trafficking.”
Research experience with the HTDP allowed Cupolo to gain hands-on experience and practical knowledge on this topic, which will be extremely useful to her as she starts law school at Boston College Law in the fall. She is looking to focus on immigration and public interest law, which both directly connect to human trafficking. She identifed the ability to learn more about a topic she is passionate about as her favorite part of being a research assistant, stating: “I’ve loved being able to gain a deep understanding of not only the horrendous problem that human trafficking is but also learn about understanding policies and laws in general along the way. This position has also helped me strengthen my writing and research skills in a way that classes aren’t able to since this is a more focused project.”
There are numerous ways for students to get involved with research on campus, even if they do not start out in the Source Project. Cupolo suggests “adopting an attitude of ‘why not’” and reaching out to professors and asking if they are taking on any student researchers. Rejection is a possibility, and Cupolo admits she asked several professors who told her they did not have any openings for students, but they were able to point her in the direction of professors who were. Ultimately, securing this research opportunity allowed her to strengthen her resume for job and graduate school applications, as well as provide her with an incredible experience that affirmed her interest in this area.
