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Denise Brennan

Georgetown University, Anthropology, Faculty Member

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University of Zagreb

Uppsala University

University of East London

University of Leicester

Gwen Robbins Schug

University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Gabriel Gutierrez-Alonso

University of Salamanca

Macquarie University

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Swansea University

Jesper Hoffmeyer

University of Copenhagen

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Books by Denise Brennan

Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States

What are the challenges to rebuilding a life after being trafficked into forced labor? Anthropolo... more What are the challenges to rebuilding a life after being trafficked into forced labor? Anthropologist Denise Brennan spent nearly ten years following the resettlement of men and women who were trafficked to the United States. Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States is an account of their struggles in and after trafficking. While many believe trafficking happens only in the sex trade, Brennan shows that across low-wage labor sectors—in fields, factories, and homes— widespread exploitation can lead to and conceal forced labor. Brennan contends that today's punitive immigration policies undermine efforts to fight trafficking. Exploited workers stay silent about abuse for fear of arrest and deportation. Life Interrupted is a riveting account of life in and after trafficking and a forceful call for meaningful immigration and labor reform.

What's Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic

What's Love Got to Do with It? follows the lives of resourceful Dominican and Haitian women who c... more

Articles by Denise Brennan

Myths Meet Reality: How We Are Not Fighting Trafficking or Supporting Trafficking Survivors

Trafficking, Scandal, and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Argentina and the United States

Key Issues in the Resettlement of Formerly Trafficked Persons in the United States

Competing Claims of Victimhood? Foreign and Domestic Victims of Trafficking in the United States

This article considers how, in the United States, a rhetorical and policy shift that focuses on d... more This article considers how, in the United States, a rhetorical and policy shift that focuses on domestic youth in prostitution affects the broader effort to fight trafficking of foreign nationals in industries other than sex work. Common sense suggests that with resources directed toward finding domestic youth in forced prostitution, fewer efforts will be made to reach foreign workers exploited in work sites outside of the sex industry. The author contends that the low numbers of individuals found thus far in forced (nonsexual) labor nationwide have been, in part, a consequence of not looking. This article also examines a number of factors that prevent migrant workers who have experienced a range of exploitation from coming forward about these abuses. In an environment of undocumented migrants' increasing distrust of law enforcement, there are many challenges to finding individuals who are subject to forced labor.

Methodological Challenges in Research with Trafficked Persons: Tales from the Field

Women Work, Men Sponge, and Everyone Gossips: Macho Men and Stigmatized/ing Women in a Sex Tourist Town

This article focuses on gossip about Dominican womens sexual labor as an entry point into documen... more This article focuses on gossip about Dominican womens sexual labor as an entry point into documenting shifting gender relations and ideologies in Sosúa, a sex tourist destination frequented primarily by German tourists. In Sosúas sexscape, new meanings of masculinity have emerged alongside womens earning capacity. While sex workers must temper their displays of monetary gains so as to not compromise their reputations as mothers sacrificing for their children, men openly enjoy freedom from gender ideologies that make demands on them to appear as hard working and sacrificing fathers. In this sexual economy, men even can flaunt their unemployment. Their laziness and/or dependency are recast as macho. Here is one industry where poor Dominican women have the opportunity to make significant earnings and to jump out of poverty, yet their labor strategies do not necessarily ensure a reconfiguration of gender roles and ideologies that works in their favor. Rather, migrant men in Sosúa enjoy such a reworking that lowers expectations for them, while women are caught in a set of increased expectations. [

Des femmes, des hommes et des rumeurs. Hommes machos et femmes stigmatisées/antes dans une ville de tourisme sexuel

Genre, sexualité et société, 2011

Chapters by Denise Brennan

Subjectivity of Coercion: Workers' Experiences with Trafficking in the United States

Revisiting the Law and Governance of Trafficking, Forced Labor, and Modern Slavery, 2016

Sex Worker Activism and Labor

Global Latin America, 2016

Treading Water: Life after Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States

Human Trafficking Reconsidered: Rethinking the Problem, Envisioning New Solutions, 2014

Sex Tourism, Globalization, and Transnational Imaginings

Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 2013

Sex Tourism and Women's Economic Opportunities in a Globalized Economy

Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry, 2009

Book Reviews by Denise Brennan

A measure of the measure of measuring

by Nayanika Mathur, Andrea Ballestero, Denise Brennan, and Sally Engle Merry

American Anthropologist, 2019

Special review section on Sally Engle Merry's, 'The Seductions of Quantification'.

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Journal of Anthropological Research)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Gender & Society)

Interview on Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (U.S. News and World Report)

Interview on Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (New Books in Gender Studies)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (New York Journal of Books)

Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States

What are the challenges to rebuilding a life after being trafficked into forced labor? Anthropolo... more What are the challenges to rebuilding a life after being trafficked into forced labor? Anthropologist Denise Brennan spent nearly ten years following the resettlement of men and women who were trafficked to the United States. Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States is an account of their struggles in and after trafficking. While many believe trafficking happens only in the sex trade, Brennan shows that across low-wage labor sectors—in fields, factories, and homes— widespread exploitation can lead to and conceal forced labor. Brennan contends that today's punitive immigration policies undermine efforts to fight trafficking. Exploited workers stay silent about abuse for fear of arrest and deportation. Life Interrupted is a riveting account of life in and after trafficking and a forceful call for meaningful immigration and labor reform.

What's Love Got to Do with It? Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic

What's Love Got to Do with It? follows the lives of resourceful Dominican and Haitian women who c... more

Myths Meet Reality: How We Are Not Fighting Trafficking or Supporting Trafficking Survivors

Trafficking, Scandal, and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Argentina and the United States

Key Issues in the Resettlement of Formerly Trafficked Persons in the United States

Competing Claims of Victimhood? Foreign and Domestic Victims of Trafficking in the United States

This article considers how, in the United States, a rhetorical and policy shift that focuses on d... more This article considers how, in the United States, a rhetorical and policy shift that focuses on domestic youth in prostitution affects the broader effort to fight trafficking of foreign nationals in industries other than sex work. Common sense suggests that with resources directed toward finding domestic youth in forced prostitution, fewer efforts will be made to reach foreign workers exploited in work sites outside of the sex industry. The author contends that the low numbers of individuals found thus far in forced (nonsexual) labor nationwide have been, in part, a consequence of not looking. This article also examines a number of factors that prevent migrant workers who have experienced a range of exploitation from coming forward about these abuses. In an environment of undocumented migrants' increasing distrust of law enforcement, there are many challenges to finding individuals who are subject to forced labor.

Methodological Challenges in Research with Trafficked Persons: Tales from the Field

Women Work, Men Sponge, and Everyone Gossips: Macho Men and Stigmatized/ing Women in a Sex Tourist Town

This article focuses on gossip about Dominican womens sexual labor as an entry point into documen... more This article focuses on gossip about Dominican womens sexual labor as an entry point into documenting shifting gender relations and ideologies in Sosúa, a sex tourist destination frequented primarily by German tourists. In Sosúas sexscape, new meanings of masculinity have emerged alongside womens earning capacity. While sex workers must temper their displays of monetary gains so as to not compromise their reputations as mothers sacrificing for their children, men openly enjoy freedom from gender ideologies that make demands on them to appear as hard working and sacrificing fathers. In this sexual economy, men even can flaunt their unemployment. Their laziness and/or dependency are recast as macho. Here is one industry where poor Dominican women have the opportunity to make significant earnings and to jump out of poverty, yet their labor strategies do not necessarily ensure a reconfiguration of gender roles and ideologies that works in their favor. Rather, migrant men in Sosúa enjoy such a reworking that lowers expectations for them, while women are caught in a set of increased expectations. [

Des femmes, des hommes et des rumeurs. Hommes machos et femmes stigmatisées/antes dans une ville de tourisme sexuel

Genre, sexualité et société, 2011

Subjectivity of Coercion: Workers' Experiences with Trafficking in the United States

Revisiting the Law and Governance of Trafficking, Forced Labor, and Modern Slavery, 2016

Sex Worker Activism and Labor

Global Latin America, 2016

Treading Water: Life after Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States

Human Trafficking Reconsidered: Rethinking the Problem, Envisioning New Solutions, 2014

Sex Tourism, Globalization, and Transnational Imaginings

Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, 2013

Sex Tourism and Women's Economic Opportunities in a Globalized Economy

Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Industry, 2009

A measure of the measure of measuring

by Nayanika Mathur, Andrea Ballestero, Denise Brennan, and Sally Engle Merry

American Anthropologist, 2019

Special review section on Sally Engle Merry's, 'The Seductions of Quantification'.

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Journal of Anthropological Research)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Gender & Society)

Interview on Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (U.S. News and World Report)

Interview on Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (New Books in Gender Studies)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (New York Journal of Books)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books)

Excerpt of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Utne Reader)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (La Vie des Idées)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Choice)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Colorado Springs Independent)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Books and Culture)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Kirkus Reviews)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (ForeWord Reviews)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Times Higher Education)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Monthly Labor Review)

University Press, 2014, 304 pp., $23.95/paperback. In Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced L... more University Press, 2014, 304 pp., $23.95/paperback. In Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States, author Denise Brennan weaves real stories of trafficked individuals, together with her exploration of recent policies and their short-and long-term effects on those who are trafficked, to give a human element to the statistics. The author approaches the topic with a thorough and multifaceted lens. Seeking out and following

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Women's Review of Books)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (New Labor Forum)

Review of Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States (American Journal of Sociology)

normative ideals of gender, prostitution, crime, and victimhood. This approach is not focused on ... more normative ideals of gender, prostitution, crime, and victimhood. This approach is not focused on a harm reduction approach or social justice, but it has political-legal support and (the potential for) mainstream popularity. I also want to emphasize, as the author does, that this book is about (a) PSOs and (b) women currently enrolled in an PSO exit program, which is not representative of all street-based sex workers or of prostitution as a universal experience. While this caveat is always the case with qualitative studies, I believe it bears repeating given the contentiousness of academic discussions of prostitution and sex work.

11. Love Trumps Hate: Community Caretaking in an Era of Mass Deportation

Crisis Under Critique

Myths Meet Reality: How We Are Not Fighting Trafficking or Supporting Trafficking Survivors

Myths Meet Reality N i. MYths, paniCs, and thE shaping Of anti-traffiCKing pOLiCY We are sixteen ... more Myths Meet Reality N i. MYths, paniCs, and thE shaping Of anti-traffiCKing pOLiCY We are sixteen years into "fighting" trafficking in the United States, and the earliest mistakes, misconceptions, and myths still guide policy, media storylines, and the public's understanding of human trafficking. This essay addresses how these policies have: (1) left workers not designated as "trafficked" under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) 1 to continue working unprotected, in a kind of labor purgatory; (2) insufficiently helped migrant workers who in fact did qualify for trafficking assistance; and (3) harmed all workers-foreign nationals and U.S. citizens-in the sex sector. True innovations in fighting trafficking must seek to protect all low-wage migrant workers, not just the most exploited. They must not fuel panics that equate all forms of sex work with trafficking. And they must offer more varied forms of assistance, over longer periods of time, to trafficking survivors. The U.S. government defines human trafficking as recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person to work under conditions of "force, fraud, or coercion." 2 Trafficking occurs in all labor sectors, but since the enactment of the TVPA in 2000, trafficking into all forms of labor often has been conflated with trafficking into just one: the sex sector. Since the early years of the TVPA's implementation, trafficking has become synonymous with prostitution. 3 It has been 10. See Denise Brennan, Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States 38-39, 72-73 (2014).

Introduction: Elena and Jürgen

A Measure of the Measure of Measuring

American Anthropologist, 2019

Introduction: Starting Over

Love in the Drug War: Selling Sex and Finding Jesus on the Mexico–US Border by Sarah Luna

Anthropological Quarterly

B sex workers and missionaries have long struggled to have their labor recognized as such. Sarah ... more B sex workers and missionaries have long struggled to have their labor recognized as such. Sarah Luna’s terrifically engaging and accessibly written ethnography Love in The Drug War: Selling Sex and Finding Jesus on the Mexico–US Border makes clear just how much labor—emotional and physical—goes into both forms of work. At first glance, readers might assume that both sets of workers are at odds with one another, since missionaries so often strive to end sex workers’ labor. But what sets this monograph apart from books that explore efforts to “rescue” or “save” sex workers is Luna’s persuasive portrait of the mutual respect, obligation, and friendship between the women missionaries and sex workers. Their respective labor and their relationships unfold against the backdrop of a “narcoeconomy” in Reynosa. Both groups of workers navigate this environment of ever-increasing violence while pursuing their “intimate, economic and moral projects” (3). The book draws on a year of field and archival research in Reynosa with sex workers and missionaries who had migrated there. To round out her archival research, Luna interviewed men between the ages of 65 and 90 who were members of the “Historical Society of Reynosa” and the “Veteran’s Club of Reynosa.” She also makes good use of handwritten memoirs by two sex workers, as well as blogs maintained by missionaries. The book opens with two excerpts that lay out why these women came to la zona, a prostitution zone composed of several city blocks and enclosed by cement walls in Reynosa, part of the state of Tamaulipas. Lucía, a former sex worker, “came to earn more money,” while Stacy, an American missionary, “never felt so invited into a genuine relationship with Jesus as

Transnational Gender and Sexuality Symposium

Determining what level of exploitation is enough to qualify as “trafficked” leaves most migrants out of assistance

One of the darker aspects of globalisation has been the growth in human trafficking, from poorer ... more One of the darker aspects of globalisation has been the growth in human trafficking, from poorer to richer countries. While many government programs have been put in place to try and address this problem, they often do not reach all those who need help. Using examples from the Dominican Republic and the United States, Denise Brennan writes that how ‘trafficked’ people are designated by governments means that many of those who are trafficked, as well as migrants who need assistance, are often left out. She argues that antitrafficking measures should address the entire spectrum of how migrants can be abused and offer protections to a range of migrant workers who are exploited — not just the most extreme cases.

THIRTEEN. Sex Worker Activism and Labor

Life Interrupted

Subjectivity of Coercion: Workers' Experiences with Trafficking in the United States

Revisiting the Law and Governance of Trafficking, Forced Labor and Modern Slavery

Editorial: Moving Forward—Life after trafficking

Anti-Trafficking Review, 2018

Spectacular stories of life in trafficking saturate the media, politicians’ speeches, and non-gov... more Spectacular stories of life in trafficking saturate the media, politicians’ speeches, and non-governmental organisations’ fundraising campaigns. With so much focus on stories of brutality, or of dramatic escapes and rescues, there has been little attention to what happens after trafficking. This special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review shines a light on trafficking outcomes—both for those who have been labelled by state actors or the NGO sector as trafficked, as well as those whose exploitation garnered no legal protections or service provision. The volume puts centre stage the challenges and successes after trafficking that largely have unfolded off stage. It points to contradictions, slippages, missed opportunities, and failings.

Thoughts on Finding and Assisting Individuals in Forced Labor in the USA

Sexualities, 2010

Trafficking, Scandal, and Abuse of Migrant Workers in Argentina and the United States

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 2014

This article examines the varied consequences that the label “trafficked” holds for migrants and ... more This article examines the varied consequences that the label “trafficked” holds for migrants and for the organizations that assist them. In the case of migrants from the Dominican Republic to Argentina, threat of U.S. economic sanctions prompted the two governments to document incidents of trafficking by labeling all forms of migrant labor exploitation as trafficking. Collapsing a range of coerced and noncoerced labor experiences under one label has muddied the definition of trafficking. In contrast, U.S. trafficking policy systematically ignores significant exploitation of labor migrants, in part because of the volatile politics of immigration in the United States, and because of the conflation of sex trafficking with trafficking. The article uses these two examples of the effects of labeling exploited workers as trafficking victims to draw attention to the politicization of the term “trafficking.”

Methodological Challenges in Research with Trafficked Persons: Tales from the Field

International Migration, 2005

Competing claims of victimhood? Foreign and domestic victims of trafficking in the United States

Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2008

This article considers how, in the United States, a rhetorical and policy shift that focuses on d... more This article considers how, in the United States, a rhetorical and policy shift that focuses on domestic youth in prostitution affects the broader effort to fight trafficking of foreign nationals in industries other than sex work. Common sense suggests that with resources directed toward finding domestic youth in forced prostitution, fewer efforts will be made to reach foreign workers exploited in work sites outside of the sex industry. The author contends that the low numbers of individuals found thus far in forced (nonsexual) labor nationwide have been, in part, a consequence of not looking. This article also examines a number of factors that prevent migrant workers who have experienced a range of exploitation from coming forward about these abuses. In an environment of undocumented migrants' increasing distrust of law enforcement, there are many challenges to finding individuals who are subject to forced labor.

Key Issues in the Resettlement of Formerly Trafficked Persons in the United States

INTRODUCTION 1581 I. METHODOLOGY AND DESCRIPTION OF T VISA RECIPIENTS 1587 II. FINDING TRAFFICKED... more INTRODUCTION 1581 I. METHODOLOGY AND DESCRIPTION OF T VISA RECIPIENTS 1587 II. FINDING TRAFFICKED PERSONS AMIDST EVERYDAY EXPLOITATION 1589 III. LIFE AFTER TRAFFICKING 1595 A. Trust and Social Networks of Coethnics 1595 B. Posttrafficking Experiences in the Labor Market 1600 C. Women in Forced Sexual Labor 1603 D. Friends, Romantic Partners, and Community-Based Organizations 1604 E. Assistance to and from Family Members 1606 CONCLUSION 1607

Tourism in Transnational Places: Dominican Sex Workers and German Sex Tourists Imagine One Another

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This paper considers how Dominican sex workers and German sex tourists imagine each other across ... more This paper considers how Dominican sex workers and German sex tourists imagine each other across national borders. They meet in a transnational space, Sosúa, a tourist town on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Sex tourism has redirected migration patterns within the Dominican Republic to Sosúa, as well as off the island by building new transnational connections to Germany. I examine why Dominican women migrate to Sosúa's sex trade, how they see German men, and what happens when they actually establish ongoing relationships with them—both in Sosúa and in Germany. I also look at how German men find out about Sosúa, its sex trade, and Dominican women. I focus on forms of communication through which they find out about one another, communication that ranges from word of mouth to newspapers, magazines, and the Internet (in the case of the men only). In Sosúa we see the relationship among capitalism's disruptive, restructuring activities; powerful images, fantasies, and desires (produced both locally and globally) that are inextricably tied up with race and gender; the emergence of young, poor, black, single mothers who are willing to engage in the sex trade; and a strong demand for these women's services on the part of white, working‐class, lower‐middle, and middle‐class, foreign male tourists.

Undocumented People (En)Counter Border Policing

Migration and Society

This article examines undocumented people’s everyday lived experience in the United States where ... more This article examines undocumented people’s everyday lived experience in the United States where their legal status is criminalized. It asks how they live with constant threat and surveillance. It highlights their strategies of invisibility as well as their generous contributions to their communities. It argues that these acts of “community caretaking” are acts of “hospitality” that demonstrate their “good citizenship.” Every time undocumented people conduct “know your rights” workshops, they model citizenship in action. The article also explores the other side of the daily equation to stay safe and spotlights undocumented people’s encounters with law enforcement agents. Agents do not act in lockstep, but rather make decisions in split seconds that can change undocumented people’s lives forever. Drawing from ethnographic field research in migrant communities inside the “100-mile border zone” as well as deep in the US interior, the article argues that “border policing” happens far fr...

Editorial: Moving Forward—Life after trafficking

Please cite this article as: D Brennan and S Plambech, ‗Editorial: Moving Forward—Life after traf... more Please cite this article as: D Brennan and S Plambech, ‗Editorial: Moving Forward—Life after trafficking', Anti-Trafficking Review, issue 10, 2018, pp. 1–12, www.antitraffickingreview.org Spectacular stories of life in trafficking saturate the media, politicians' speeches, and non-governmental organisations' fundraising campaigns. With so much focus on stories of brutality, or of dramatic escapes and rescues, there has been little attention to what happens after trafficking. This special issue of the Anti-Trafficking Review shines a light on trafficking outcomes—both for those who have been labelled by state actors or the NGO sector as trafficked, as well as those whose exploitation garnered no legal protections or service provision. The volume puts centre stage the challenges and successes after trafficking that largely have unfolded off stage. It points to contradictions, slippages, missed opportunities, and failings. It introduces cases of life after trafficking in co...