Thesis (Take 1)

Here is my first draft thesis:

The European Union’s human trafficking legislation creates institutionalized violence for the victims of human trafficking.

 

I then decided that this was really bare bones and needed some more explaining:

Much attention has been given to the lack of victim care in the European Union’s legislation that addresses human trafficking; this lack of victim care can be understood as institutionalized violence on the part of the European Union toward human trafficking  victims.

 

One of my friends stopped by and gave me this language for it:

European Union human trafficking legislation and feminist non-governmental organization practices need to be reconciled to address the institutional violence perpetuated by the European Union against human trafficking victims.

 

I’m still debating if the part about feminist NGO practices should be in my thesis because the main point of my paper is to create a narrative of institutional violence against human trafficking victims on the part of the European Union. It will be my recommendation to adopt feminist NGO practices, but that will not be the main portion of my paper.

 

So, here is the draft thesis that I have settled on for now:

European Union human trafficking legislation creates institutionalized violence against human trafficking victims. Though there has been much coverage of the lack of human trafficking victim care on the part of European Union, this paper will create a narrative of institutionalized violence that will demonstrate the need for reconciliation of European Union legislation and human trafficking victims.

Thinking through my topic

I became an International Relations major because I really wanted to explore issues that affected women.Human trafficking has eventually became the main issue I am concerned with and want to focus my attention on. The European Union is my area of concentration for the IR major. So clearly, I want to do my senior seminar topic on human trafficking in the European Union.

Thoroughly examining human trafficking in the European Union is the work of more than one lifetime, so I need to narrow this down. Fortunately, the theme of senior seminar is “reconciliation” so I have a lens through which to do that.

Part of my journey through the IR major has been discovering Feminist International Relations. Feminist IR theories really click with me and I am really excited to use them in my research.

So, here goes:

I would like my paper to be about how feminist international relations and the legislature of the EU is in conflict, and it is NGOs that reconcile feminist practices with ending human trafficking. My advice is for the EU to adopt some of the policies of the NGOs that are working to end human trafficking.

I still need to narrow this down a bit. I will probably focus on victim care.

The main thing I need to do right now is complete some more research and begin to really identify my actors and find the language to really explain my conflict and the process of reconciliation I propose.