Laura Vidal

Dr Laura Vidal is a Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Wollongong. Laura's research is multi-disciplinary and broadly concerned with the way systems define and respond to harm, as compared with, the way individuals experience harm and navigate intervention and support. Her work to date has been focused on the contexts of human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices - particularly forced marriage; gender-based violence; and the intersection between migration and harm. She has done this work across industry where she worked as a social work practitioner for over a decade, and academic institutions including the University of Sydney and the University of Canberra before taking up her position at the University of Wollongong.

Laura's work is frequently drawn on by government and civil society in ongoing law, policy and program responses, particularly in relation to human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices, including forced marriage, where she remains an active contributor to reform.