On March 3, 2011, the Appignani Bioethics Center, a project of the American Humanist Association, hosted a panel discussion, “Human Trafficking, Exploitation and Abuse of Sex Workers: Suggested Remedies.” It took place during the 55th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

The Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition holds annual gatherings focused on building community awareness and mobilization against human trafficking.

Bruce M. Sullivan is a professor of religious studies at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. He is a specialist in Hinduism, Buddhism, and India’s classical Sanskrit literary and theatrical traditions. He teaches a course on the Hindu epics.

Corinne G. Dempsey is an associate professor of religious studies at Nazareth College and the author of The Goddess Lives in Upstate New York: Breaking Convention and Making Home at a North American Hindu Temple, a profile of a South Indian community in Rush, N.Y.

Loriliai Biernacki is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research interests include Hinduism in the diaspora, and the interface between religion, science, and gender.

Peter Gottschalk is a professor of religion at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. He studies the dynamic of the cultural interplay between Hinduism, Islam, and the West.

Whitney Sanford is an assistant professor of religion at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She is an expert on Hindu narratives of agriculture and religion and nature in South Asia.

A Jan. 25, 2011, blog post at Christianity Today‘s website detailed how a number of church-based anti-trafficking groups planned to combat the sex trade during the run-up to Super Bowl XLV in Dallas. The groups included Traffick911 and Love 146. And Christian Brothers Investment Services, an investment firm that works with 1,000 Catholic institutions, pressured Dallas hotels to help battle the sex trade.

Read a Dec. 29, 2010, Baptist Press story, “Groups target Super Bowl sex trafficking,” about Traffick911 and Love 146.