Dr. Hannah E Britton

For the past twenty years, my research has focused on the intersection of gender, sexuality, nationality, and ethnicity as factors affecting social status, political power, and violence prevention. Much of my early scholarship focused on improving the socio-economic and political position of women in post-conflict settings, in particular in southern Africa. More recently, my work examines how individuals and communities address the risk, protective, and resiliency factors affecting (1) human trafficking, including sex and labor exploitation and (2) intimate-partner violence and gender-based violence. My twenty years of field-based research in South Africa and Namibia and my more recent work in the Midwest U.S. provide a wealth of experience in designing community-based research projects. My primary research methodology has been field-based research in both rural and urban settings, and I have employed a range of qualitative research methods including interview research, focus group research, participant observation, document analysis, and content analysis. Through this field-based research, I have extensive knowledge of reaching hidden populations, of working in urban and rural areas, of establishing networks of community partners, and of designing researcher and participant safety measures.