Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses Studies Fall 12-16-2015 From Panic to Pity: Circuits and Circulations of the Contemporary Anti-Trafficking Crusade Juliana Ramirez-Rodriguez Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wsi_theses Recommended Citation Ramirez-Rodriguez, Juliana, "From Panic to Pity: Circuits and Circulations of the Contemporary Anti- Trafficking Crusade." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2015. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wsi_theses/52 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FROM PANIC TO PITY: CIRCUITS AND CIRCULATIONS OF THE CONTEMPORARY ANTI-TRAFFICKING CRUSADE by JULIANA RAMÍREZ RODRÍGUEZ Under the Direction of Amira Jarmakani, PhD ABSTRACT The creation, implementation, and ratification of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), as well as the growth of parallel private initiatives against human trafficking, have emerged from a neoliberal political agenda that focuses on redefinitions of labor, sexuality, securitization of humanitarian campaigns, and immigration policies. In this thesis, I explore some of the meanings and effects of those redefinitions by focusing on the affective registers of pity and panic in their ability to mobilize publics toward restrictive forms of assistance to real and imaginary victims of the so-called phenomenon of “modern-day slavery.” INDEX WORDS: Anti-trafficking crusade, Affect, Panic, Pity, Trafficking Victims Protection Act.