E-Mail: kfoot (at) uw.edu
The UW Department of Communication encourages faculty to do public scholarship, that is, to engage in constructive dialogue not only with academics but also with other citizens, diverse communities, and political and cultural leaders. Such dialogue increases the potential transformative power of communication scholarship, while also fulfilling a central mission of a public research university. Dr. Foot is committed to publicly-oriented, practice-informed, collaborative scholarship. Both the participatory action research methodology Dr. Foot 
employs in her work on anti-trafficking efforts, and the book she is writing on collaboration in combating human trafficking, are forms of public scholarship. As she has done in prior publications, such as the article for law enforcement executives that she co-authored with a former police investigator, Dr. Foot’s book will provide theoretically-informed, evidence-based research to law enforcement officers, advocacy groups, and other kinds of anti-trafficking leaders in accessible ways.
In addition to writing for audiences beyond academics, Dr. Foot engages in public scholarship by serving as an advisor to local anti-trafficking organizations including Seattle Against Slavery and Washington Engage , and helping to coordinate public events that bring internationally-known experts on human trafficking to Seattle such as Dr. Helga Konrad’s lecture on “Combating and Preventing Human Trafficking”. She is a member of the planning team for King County’s public awareness campaign on this issue, and the national steering committee for the U.S. Freedom Registry, a self-registering, online database of organizations combating trafficking and exploitation across the United States. Dr. Foot also serves on the national advisory board of the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking’s Colorado Project, providing counsel on research in the “Partnership” area of that project.
For more information on Dr. Foot’s research, courses, and publications, visit her faculty page.
