The Model Illinois Government Conference shifted to the old state capitol today and students gave speeches in the same chamber where President Lincoln once stood. One of my Millikin University students even won the award for Outstanding House Committee Chair!

At Model Illinois Government this weekend in Springfield and I always love the night sessions at the capitol building. It's really fun for students to debate bills in the Senate and General Assembly chambers into the evening and see themselves on the big screen!

Yesterday I talked to students in POLS 471 The Politics of Human Trafficking at the University of Kansas. My advisor said that the class would not have been possible without my work. It was really humbling to have students read my research and know the work I started there continues.

Attended the Making HERstory: Women in Millikin Poster Display reception opening with a mimosa toast honoring the historical accomplishments of Millikin women who have made a lasting impact at our institution for #WomensHistoryMonth tonight!

Had a short #AcWri at the coffee shop today working on revisions to our adjudication article. The weather is nice so it was very busy and it was hard to concentrate today. At least I can always take my coffee and revisions to go! ✍️☕

We spent most of February working on revisions to chapters and articles. Much less glamorous than outreach work during #HumanTrafficking Prevention Month but vital to keep our research moving forward! Catch up on our work here: humantraffickingresearchlab.org

Another week of #AcWri Saturday and more revisions! This week I am working on a revise and resubmit for our #HumanTrafficking adjudication article. It's going to take me a bit since I have to explore new literature and do some stats but hopefully that will be good enough for the reviewers! 🤞✍️

Illinois Task Force on Human Trafficking meeting today! Very informative presentation from local org Emmaus on male victims of trafficking and the lack of services, screenings, and housing for them not just in Illinois but around the country. I always learn something new from service providers!

My husband knows my love language...caramel chocolates and Ukrainian books about the place where we used to live! Happy Valentine's Day everyone! 💕 💘💓 💝🇺🇦

I was on Latvijas Radio's (ne)Diplomātiskās pusdienas podcast today talking about the Epstein files and their connections to Latvia. You can listen to the episode in 🇱🇻 'Epstīna faili: Cilvēku tirdzniecība – sievietes, vara un Eiropas klusā krīze" here! lr1.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/ne...

Sent my book manuscript off to my editor this week and onto the next deadline for this Chapter on Human Trafficking and Forced Criminality in Wartime part of an edited volume on Ukraine. #AcWri Saturday at my local coffee shop continues.... 🇺🇦☕✍️

Senior night at Millikin wrestling and I went to support one of my graduating students. I always try to go to my student's sports before they graduate and it was my first wrestling match. Didn't really know what was happening but I have had three students on the team in class!

When the only time that works for everyone in our borderlands travel class is 5 pm on a Friday you bring pizza. Nothing like a Friday night with 8 students, 5 pizzas, and the history of the Baltic States to 1918 🍕! #BalticImmersion 🇱🇻🇱🇹🇪🇪🇫🇮

Spent last night listening to Human Rights Defender Maksym Butkevych discuss his two years & four months of captivity as a Ukrainian POW. His entire testimony was a chronicle of Russian violations of international law & the Geneva Convention. An impactful night that will stay with me. 🇺🇦

January was a busy month for us in the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University. Catch up on all of our outreach work during Human Trafficking Prevention Month and my reflections on our panel discussion last week. humantraffickingresearchlab.org

#AcWri Saturday at my local coffee shop. Started working on the revisions to the conclusion of my book Gendering the Saeima: the Politics of Women's Representation in Latvia. Hoping to send it back to my publisher and the reviewers next week. ✍️☕🇱🇻🤞

Thanks to everyone who came out to our 9th Annual Human Trafficking Prevention Month panel discussion on Labor Trafficking at Millikin tonight! We had a great discussion and I am so thankful to be able to bring experts together for these vital discussions over the past nine years.

I was on WSOY radio this morning talking about our panel discussion tonight on labor trafficking at Millikin as part of Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Thankful for the opportunity to learn more about this topic from local experts and survivors! omny.fm/shows/byers-...

Saturday #AcWri today revising Chapter 7 on substantive representation the last chapter of my book Gendering the Saeima: the Politics of Women's Representation in Latvia. So ready to be done with these revisions and send this back to the reviewers! ☕✍️🇱🇻

Such exciting news! If you attended our Global Slavery Summit back in November you likely signed a postcard to Representatives Mary Miller and Nikki Budzinski at our advocacy table about H.R. 4323 the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act. www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...

My book Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia is part of this sale.....if you have been waiting to buy it for six years hoping it would get cheaper now is the time!

On Tuesday my student research assistant read the #HumanTrafficking Prevention Month Proclamation to the Decatur City Council. She got to shake hands with the mayor and get her signature. It was pretty easy to set up and I can send you my model proclamation if you would like to do this in your city!

Looking forward to our Ninth Annual Panel Discussion on Labor Trafficking for Human Trafficking Prevention Month next week at Millikin University! We have a pretty great group of panelists who will speak on an important and understudied aspect of #HumanTrafficking.

Happy first day of classes spring semester 2026! Does not feel like spring at all but most of my students said the one thing that they were looking forward to this semester was warmer weather so I am pretty sure their wish will come true!

It was a snowy last #WinterBreak #AcWri at my local coffee shop today! Still working on revisions to chapter six on women's policy agendas in Latvia but hoping to finish it by the time classes start on Tuesday. Sad to be done with break but ready for warmer temps! ☕✍️🇱🇻❄️

#AcWri working on edits to Chapter 6 on women's policy agendas in the Saeima in a fancy coffee shop near the University of Illinois today. Met a friend for lunch and writing. The coffee was great and the big campus coffee shop writing vibe was so much fun! ☕✍️🇱🇻

Had to do my Saturday #WinterBreak #AcWri at home today because my poor dog took a tumble down the stairs and I wanted to keep an eye on her. Ran out quickly to get coffee and one of my students was working so she made Scarlett a pup cup. Definitely brightened her day!

Totally agree with this article, it is time for a woman to lead the UN! A woman from Eastern Europe with unique knowledge of colonialism, regime change, and democracy building and backsliding is definitely an excellent choice! passblue.com/2025/12/09/a...

#AcWri winter break edition! Starting edits and revisions to Chapter 5 on violence against women in politics of my book Gendering the Saeima: the Politics of Women's Representation in Latvia. I read and edit on paper before working on reviewer comments and double checking my translations/sources.

Read about this in my WomenLead substack and it's so interesting to see such a blatant example of how parliamentary spaces were not designed for women.....I analyze women's work in a gender insensitive parliament in my book Gendering the Saeima too! www.bbc.com/news/article...

One of my favorite Latvian authors Nora Ikstena passed away today. I have been fortunate read her work in English and Latvian. I also took my students to see Soviet Milk (Mātes piens) in the theaters during my last Baltic Immersion class. Ļoti skumjas ziņas...Izsaku līdzjūtību. 🇱🇻

Ukrainian police busted a #HumanTrafficking ring that recruited 🇺🇦 women from the front lines in Donetsk oblast for sexual exploitation in Europe. Two women recruiters were arrested in 🇺🇦 and police are formalizing the process for the third suspect in Poland. www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-regio...

Back in Decatur for my #AcWri Saturday working on revisions to Chapter 4 of my book Gendering the Saeima on interruptions in parliamentary debates. With only two weeks left of #WinterBreak I am almost halfway done with these book revisions.....hoping to finish by February!🤞🇱🇻✍️

A few last snowy walks on the lake and in the woods during #WinterBreak before heading home to Illinois. My parents still have their Ukrainian flag out on the lake in Minnesota to show our support! 🇺🇦

January is #HumanTrafficking Prevention Month in the United States. Here are a variety of awareness signs with different messages and hotlines that I found in toilets and rest areas during my #WinterBreak Travels!

Walking with my favs in snowy Northern Wisconsin! Happy holidays, Priecīgus ziemassvētkus, і з Різдвом Христовим усіх! 🎄 ❄️

We just received a revise and resubmit decision on our Adjudication of #HumanTrafficking cases in Central Illinois article! This is the fourth article from Human Trafficking Research Lab published with students and I told them we have to celebrate academic wins like this when they come along! #AcWri

Final grades are submitted and I am officially starting #WinterBreak! Looking forward to ice skating and walking on the lake in Minnesota and seeing the family and friends from college in Wisconsin!

Our panel "Women’s Leadership, Protest, and Representation in Central and Eastern Europe" was accepted to the 2026 European Conference on Politics and Gender! Looking forward to visiting Newcastle this summer to present my chapter on Women’s Work and Parliamentary Effectiveness in the Saeima! 🇱🇻

End of semester updates from the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin with information on our upcoming 9th Annual Panel Discussion for #HumanTrafficking Prevention Month on "Labor Trafficking" in January. Looking forward to another year of research in the lab! humantraffickingresearchlab.org

Doing a little #AcWri in my local coffee shop on a very chilly morning in Central Illinois before all of my final papers come in tomorrow. Working on revisions to Chapter Three of my book on women's work today and hoping to finish them this week before my winter break begins!

It was a very cold 2025 Winter Commencement at Millikin University today! Enjoyed the thoughtful and reflective keynote speech from Angel Lawrence, Executive Director of the Northeast Community Fund. She was an undergraduate political science major and then received her MSW. Congrats graduates! 🎓

Happy Cookie Party Day to all who celebrate.....this is my favorite day of the year at Millikin!

It's pretty cool that my Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin will be featured on a professional development panel "Academic Entrepreneurship: Launching and Leading Centers, Labs, and Institutes" for Women in Legislative Studies @winls.bsky.social with others from Dartmouth and Arizona State!

Went to the 66th Annual Vespers Concert today where the theme was peace and the program was the dove of peace in Ukrainian flag colors. They sang the English version of Carol of Bells with a verse in Ukrainian but I realized I really only know the words to Щедрик in Ukrainian! 🇺🇦

Finishing up revisions to Chapter Two of my book Gendering the Saeima: The Politics of Women's Representation in Latvia today for my #AcWri Saturday! Glad to be writing back in my local coffee shop this weekend since we had a blizzard last weekend and I didn't make it out of the house. ☕ 🎄🇱🇻

Up early for our panel discussion today on "Transnational dimensions of human trafficking in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine" as part of the Conference on Global Organized Crime. #OC24 🇺🇦 oc24.heysummit.com?sc=KPxEAvqp

Today is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery and #GivingTuesday! I fundraise all of my students' salaries in the Human Trafficking Research Lab at Millikin University through grants and donations. You can support our research here 👇 www.humantraffickingresearchlab.org/2023/10/htrl...

Last day of #AcWriMo and I finished half of my goals this month. I met some of my 3rd goal and finished the revisions to the introduction and Chapter One of my book Gendering the Saeima. We have been snowed in so sadly no coffee pics this weekend but my dog Scarlett doesn't seem to mind! 📚

Might have gone a little overboard with my Ukrainian chocolate reward for finishing our article as part of #AcWriMo. Made a quick trip out to the Ukrainian Village in Chicago during our free afternoon for Model UN and also got varenyky and medovik for dinner from the deli! 🇺🇦