UWA Modern Slavery Research Cluster (MSRC)

Research
Members
PhD study
Contact us

About us

The UWA Modern Slavery Research Cluster (MSRC) brings together interdisciplinary researchers and students from across UWA and our partners to contribute to tackling Modern Slavery. We adopt a broad approach to modern slavery and as a working definition consider modern slavery to be: ‘… an umbrella term used to describe a number of crimes, including, but not limited to, human trafficking, forced labour, sexual slavery, child labour and trafficking, domestic servitude, forced marriage, bonded labour including debt bondage, slavery and other slavery-like practices’.¹

Research

Through the conduct of interdisciplinary research and partnerships with key stakeholders the MSRC will analyse and contribute to theoretical, historical and contemporary applied frameworks for understanding and tackling modern slavery.

Current and future research interests include, among others:

Better business and legislative responses to modern slavery
Modern slavery risks in business and supply chains
Modern slavery and wellbeing
The nexus between illegal fishing and modern slavery
Postcolonial critique of modern slavery in Australia
The implications for at-risk workers, industries and regions
Multi-stakeholder approaches to tackling modern slavery
Consumerism and modern slavery
Economic and public policy implications of modern slavery
International and comparative law with regard to slavery and human trafficking and forced marriage
Criminological and criminal law responses to human trafficking and modern slavery.

Members

The University of Western Australia

To read more about our research, engagement, and policy work, please visit the webpages of our members below.

Contact UWA Modern Slavery Research Cluster (MSRC)

Email

Associate Professor Fiona McGaughey

[email protected]

Email

Associate Professor Donella Caspersz

[email protected]

¹Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Modern slavery and global supply chains: Interim report of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade's inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia (August 2017).