Monico represents Elon at World Congress of Sociology

Carmen Monico, an assistant professor of human service studies, was among thousands of scholars from around the world who attended and presented at the XIX World Congress of Sociology held in July in Canada.

Carmen Monico, assistant professor in the Department of Human Service Studies, recently participated in the XIX World Congress of Sociology, which is organized every two years by the International Sociological Association.

Held at the Metro Toronto Convention Center from July 15-21 with the theme “Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses and Responsibilities,” the event was attended by 5,000 scholars from around the world. More than 10,000 abstracts submitted but only 1,500 were accepted, including two abstracts for research projects in which Monico has been involved. 

During a session on human rights and global justice titled “Children at Risk in the Late 20th and 21st Century,” Monico presented “A ‘Constructed’ Definition of Child Abduction to Promote Child Rights and Welfare: A Study of Best Practice in the Search of Stolen Children in Guatemala.” All panel presentations, including Monico’s paper on the objective hermeneutic construction of the evolution of intercountry adoption that she conducted as part of her dissertation work, will be part of a special issue for Children and Society, a journal of Wiley Online Library.  

At a session on the sociology of migration titled “Modern Day Slavery and Trafficking in Persons: The Variables of Migration, Gender and Human Rights,” Monico presented “A Critical Sociological Analysis of “Push-Pull” Factors Influencing Human Trafficking: Towards an Integrated, Multidimensional Conceptual Model to Inform Interventions.” The panel presentation was part of the dissemination of preliminary results of a research project Monico is developing in collaboration with Jennifer Toller Erausquin of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

During the first completed year, the project has involved systematic review of academic and grey literature and analysis of evidence at global, national and state levels. During the next two years, the research will be complemented by interviews of service providers of victims/survivors of human trafficking in North Carolina to develop a tentative model for the development of multi-level, interdisciplinary and intersectional interventions. 

At Elon, Monico teaches human service courses with an international focus, including Working with Groups and Communities, International Human Services, the Guatemala Practicum, Global Violence Against Women, and Human Trafficking. She also teaches a Core Curriculum course with emphasis on civil society and global governance.

Since 2014, Monico has mentored more than a dozen of students in research related to human service topics such as sexual assault in campuses, mindfulness for sexual assault survivors, global human trafficking and in the Latino community, the fear of deportation of Hispanic college students, and the utilization of self-care services at Elon. Monico has integrated students into the research she is conducting regarding academic opportunities and global experiences as well as international human service delivery, including ongoing research linked to the Guatemala Practicum. 

At UNCG, Erausquin is a social epidemiologist whose work focuses on the social determinants of health, who has also conducted research on community-led HIV prevention interventions for female sex workers in India. Erausquin teaches Health Data Analysis, Gender and Health, Community Health Interventions, Program Planning and Evaluation, and Advanced Program Evaluation in Public Health Education. Involved in the human trafficking research have been Rachel Faller, a UNCG graduate student, and Haley Cole, an undergraduate research student, who is also a College of Arts and Sciences Fellow.