April Petillo Conference Summary

April Petillo Conference Summary

April Petillo
Ph.D. Candidate  (Graduated 06/14/2015)
American Indian Studies GIDP

Conference Summary
The 2015 Law & Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting/Conference
Seattle Westin Hotel (Seattle, WA)
May 28th – 31st, 2015

Race Theory and Gender Studies as well as Law & Policy.   My dissertation investigates the policy environment surrounding contemporary targeted sex trafficking of Native peoples.  I am one of the few in the UA American Indian Studies Department using comparative and international perspective when considering these issues.  While the program is academically rigorous, there are times when it is also helpful to engage comparative academic perspectives which analyze similarities and difference to understand larger social interactions.  Attendance and participation at conference and association meetings helps.

Based on a seminar presentation on U.S. law concerning international and domestic trafficking, I was invited to co-author and co-present a paper on the complexities and implications of the 2014 kidnapping of Chibok schoolgirls in Nigeria.  The paper, entitled “Bringing it Home: Sex Trafficking and State Action,” was to be presented at the 2015 Law & Society Association (LSA) meeting. 

The LSA is an interdisciplinary association dedicated to social scientific, interpretive, and historical analyses of law across multiple social contexts. They examine how the law works in service to sociologists by seeking to understand how people interact with law governed domains and why those people engage in the manner that they do.  LSA also applies sociological understandings of evasions of law, resistance and defiance toward law, and alternatives to law to better inform and develop effective legal approaches.  The meeting was an opportunity to engage with scholars in a different arena whose work is directly related to mine, as well as the people who make up my larger academic community beyond the university.  I would not have been able to do so if it were not for the Herbert E. Carter Travel (Carter) Award.

During the conference, I met several scholars, from all over the world, who expanded my thinking about how to apply global indigenous understanding and law making in a contemporary context. In addition to presenting with Dr. Leslye Obiora, I was able to meet with National Science Foundation Law & Society Program Officers and attend timely presentations examining the intersections of ethno-race and the law such as “Critical Police Studies: Examining the Intersections of Race and Law Enforcement.”   I met up with colleagues in other, similar fields to discuss the process and experience post-degree over several incredibly insightful meals.  Another highlight was attending an “Author Meets Reviewer” session.  In these sessions authors of new books sit in a roundtable with reviewers who are well established in their fields and discuss a recent publication of the author’s work.  Sameena Mulla, a gender-based violence anthropologist and author of The Violence of Care (NYU Press, 2014), shared her insights on the process of research and turning that into a publishable work.  This experience also give me insight on how to frame much of my work for a broader academic audience.  During this conference, I made invaluable connections with future collaborators, reinforced connections with existing colleagues at other institutions and showed a breadth of scope that expands the possibilities of how my work is applied.  I left the conference with new article and presentation ideas and found myself recruited to assist with the association’s efforts to better serve its young-in-career members. Since this meeting I have been in touch with a number of people I met there and have even gotten leads on future academic employment. This was quite a lot in four short days!

For my future, it is imperative to be seen at conferences and meetings demonstrating my ability to reason, analyze and educate on the same level as currently active lawyers (such as Jane Eggers) and well-seasoned professionals (such as Leslye Obiora). I was honored and excited to be able to do so as a part of a well-established association conference that constantly strives for ways to reinvigorate the field, embraces new and emerging scholarship and fosters professional/academic relationships.  Overall, my experience of the LSA meeting was phenomenal and helped to excite me about entering the job market.  I am grateful to have received the Carter Award to support my participation in a capstone experience of earning my Ph.D.