Skip navigation

Dr Lorena Arocha

Assistant Professor

School: Humanities and Social Sciences

Lorena Arocha’s research has focused on exploring intersections in policy and practice in relation to critical slavery studies. Critical slavery studies relates to scholarship that aims to critically examine the impact of phenomena that falls under the umbrella term of ‘modern slavery’ and often includes human trafficking, forced labour and other forms of exploitation. She has published and worked on projects evaluating the implementation of child sexual exploitation and trafficking policy in the UK, explored the roles of organisations in anti-trafficking work in South Asia, the role of migrant and refugee community organisations in the development of modern slavery policy in the UK, the role of ‘modern slavery’ in efforts to address female labour exploitation in agricultural sectors across a variety of contexts (i.e. South Asia and Southern Spain), conducted student-led evaluations of non-governmental services, including provisions for asylum-seeking young people and women in sex work. Her research has been funded by both academic and non-academic institutions, including Comic Relief, British Academy and the ESRC.  

Lorena Arocha

Critical slavery studies (i.e. modern slavery, human trafficking, labour exploitation) migration and gender


Latest News and Features

a group of five people pictured standing on a staircase
The first cohort of Civil Engineering Degree Apprentices from Northumbria University, at their graduation.
One year after Northumbria University was announced as the lead research partner on the 2026 State of the World's Volunteerism Report (SWVR) produced by United Nations Volunteers (UNV), the publication has been launched in New York on International Volunteer Day, 5 December.
Glasgow SEC
Northumbria University Graphic Design student, Adam Graham, with Director of Converge Northumbria, Ally Hunter-Byron.
Northumbria Campus at night
More news
More events

Upcoming events

Northumbria University Carol Service 2025
Collaborating for Capability: Shaping the Future of Supply Chain Talent
Viruses of Microbes-UK (VoM-UK) Conference 2026
-
Back to top