Siddharth Kara

Siddharth Kara is a British Academy Global Professor and an associate professor at the University of Nottingham. He is best known for his book "Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives" (2023). He has also published a trilogy on modern slavery: Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery (2009), Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia (2012), and Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective (2017).

Siddharth Kara
Siddharth Kara
Siddharth Kara
OccupationAuthor, Anti-Slavery Activist, Global Professor – British Academy
NationalityAmerican
EducationDuke University, Columbia University, University of London
GenreModern Slavery, Human Rights
Notable works'Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives (2023)', 'Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery (2009), Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia (2012), Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective (2017),
Notable awardsWinner – Frederick Douglass Book Award, Yale University
2010 Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
SpouseAditi Shankardass

Early life

Kara was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Indian parents of Hindu and Parsi background. He grew up between Memphis, Tennessee, where he attended Memphis University School, and Mumbai, India, where he spent most of his summers.

Education and early career

Kara received a BA in English and Philosophy from Duke University (including one semester at Queen Mary College, University of London). While at Duke University, Kara co-founded the Duke Refugee Action Project, which was the precursor to the prestigious Hart Leadership Program at the Sanford School of Public Policy[1] The project was set up to enable students to volunteer in Bosnian refugee camps in the former Yugoslavia.[2] He and a few other students obtained a grant from the university, learned basic Bosnian, and procured placements from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to volunteer at camps in the region. That summer, he lived as the refugees, in wretched conditions with barely enough to eat. During this time, he heard countless tales of brutish atrocities, including tales of Serbian soldiers who would raid Bosnian villages, execute the men, then round up the women and young girls, rape them and traffic them to brothels across Europe.[3]

Kara worked as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch in New York City for several years, during which time he was involved in some of the firm's largest M&A and equity financing transactions.[4]

He received an MBA from Columbia University. While attending Columbia, he became increasingly aware of the need for a more analytical finance and economics approach to understanding modern slavery.[5] The summer he graduated from Columbia, he embarked on the first of several long self-funded journeys across the world to research contemporary slavery and child labor. Upon his return, he decided not to resume his career in investment banking, in order to be able to continue his research and analysis of contemporary slavery.[6] He moved to Los Angeles, where he worked and consulted by day, while continuing to make research trips around the world.[7]

He then received a law degree from the BPP Law School in London.[8]

Research and writing

Kara's research travels have taken him to more than fifty countries across six continents, where he has interviewed several thousand former and current slaves of all kinds.[9] Most of the research for Kara's books has been self-funded, though he has also received research support from major charitable foundations such as Humanity United and Google.org.[4]

Kara has published three non-fiction books that provide his approach to all forms of contemporary slavery.[8]

Kara has also published several articles in legal and academic journals such as the Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights,[10] Harvard International Review,[11] Solutions Journal,[12] and World Politics Review.[13]

Kara has also edited two thematic issues of the journal Social Inclusion (in 2015 and 2017), titled 'Perspectives on Human Trafficking and Modern Forms of Slavery'.[14][15]

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives (2023)

In January 2023, Kara's non-fiction book Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives was released by St. Martin's Press, which debuted on the NY Times Bestseller List. Cobalt Red is the first-ever book to investigate human rights and environmental abuses involving the mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DR Congo supplies almost 75 percent of the world's supply of cobalt, which is used in the manufacture of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries found in smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Praise for Cobalt Red includes:

"Timely, important, compelling." — The Los Angeles Times

"Harrowing...a righteous quest to expose injustice." — The New York Times Book Review

"Powerful...heart-wrenching...compelling." — The Wall Street Journal

Kara has also appeared extensively in the media to talk about the human rights abuses involved with cobalt mining, including on The Joe Rogan Experience, Fresh Air, CNN, Fox News, and ABC News.[16]

Cobalt Red was shortlisted for the 2023 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award.[17]

Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery (2009)

Kara's first non-fiction book on contemporary slavery, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, was published by Columbia University Press in January 2009. The book won the 2010 Frederick Douglass Book Prize, given to the most outstanding nonfiction book on the subject of slavery and/or abolition and antislavery movements. Since the inception of the Award in 1999, numerous books on the subject of modern-day slavery have been submitted, but Kara's book was the first to be awarded the prize.[18]

The book has been recommended by the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.[19] It has been lauded by academics, policy-makers[20] and the press, with the Financial Times describing it as an "eloquent and campaigning book",[21] and slavery experts heralding it as "groundbreaking"[19] and the "best book yet on the enduring problem of modern-day slavery".[22]

Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia (2012)

Kara's second non-fiction book on contemporary slavery, Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia, was released by Columbia University Press in October 2012. The book focuses on the pervasive system of bonded labor, encompassing roughly six out of every ten slaves in the world.[23] Its geographic focus is South Asia, covering such industries as hand-woven-carpet making, tea and rice farming, construction, brick manufacture, and frozen-shrimp production. Kara's concludes with ten specific initiatives to eliminate the system of bonded labor from South Asia.[24]

The book received high commendations from scholars, activists, non-profit organisations and governments, and was covered as part of a three part series on the CNN International primetime news program Connect the World with Becky Anderson.[25][26]

Tainted Carpets: Slavery and Child Labor in India's Hand-Made Carpet Sector (2014)

Kara was the lead investigator and author of the report Tainted Carpets: Slavery and Child Labor in India's Hand-Made Carpet Sector, which was released through the Harvard School of Public Health in January 2014.[27] This report is the largest single first-hand study of slavery and child labor conducted to date, and also the largest single study of slavery and child labor in the supply chain of any commodity. The study found estimated prevalence rates of 45% for forced labor, 28% for bonded labor, and 20% for child labor. The report makes recommendations on how to improve the conditions that were found.

Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective (2017)

Kara's third non-fiction book on contemporary slavery, Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective was released by Columbia University Press in October 2017. The book had its launch at the United Nations, and has been lauded by experts in the field, including Luis CdeBaca, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and Swanee Hunt, former U.S. Ambassador to Austria.[28]

Media

Kara has appeared extensively in the media as an expert on modern slavery, including appearances on the Joe Rogan Experience, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, CNN, Fox News, ABC News, and CNBC[29] He also appeared in 2010 as a panelist on the BBC News primetime current affairs program BBC World Debate, held in Luxor, Egypt.[30]

Kara is a regular contributor to The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern Day Slavery, CNN's major year-long initiative, launched in 2011, to expose modern-day slavery around the world and highlight the efforts being made to eradicate it.[31] His unique journey across South Asia to research for his second book on bonded labor was covered as a ten-week series in 2010 on the CNN International primetime news program Connect the World with Becky Anderson.[32] The launch of his book was subsequently covered in a three part series on the same news program.[25][26]

Academia

British Academy and University of Nottingham, UK

In the Summer of 2020, Kara was one of 10 experts and scholars awarded the prestigious Global Professorship by the British Academy.[33] As part of the program he began an Associate Professor position with the Rights Lab and the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham in October 2020.[34]

Harvard University

In the fall of 2009, Kara became the first Fellow on Human Trafficking with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.[4] In the Spring of 2012, Kara taught the first course on human trafficking at the Harvard Kennedy School. He also accepted a joint appointment as a visiting scientist on Forced Labor at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard School of Public Health.[35] In the spring of 2013, Kara became an adjunct lecturer in public policy[36] to continue to teach his course on slavery and trafficking. He also accepted an appointment as the director of the Program on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.[37]

University of California, Berkeley

In the Spring of 2016, Kara became a lecturer in Global Poverty and Practice[38] at the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley, teaching the same course on slavery and trafficking that he taught later in the year at Harvard University.

Consulting

Kara speaks and consults extensively on contemporary slavery and human rights around the world.[8] He advises the United Nations, US government and several other governments on antislavery policy and law.[39][40] He also advises several international and non-governmental organizations, including the Clinton Global Initiative and Humanity United.[4] He has spoken at numerous conferences and institutions and has been interviewed on over fifty radio and television shows in the US, Europe, South Asia and East Asia.[41][42]

Kara serves on the board of several antislavery organizations,[43] and also serves on the committee founded by Kirk Douglas that is lobbying the US Congress to provide an official apology for pre-bellum slavery.[44] He has testified several times in international forums as an expert on human trafficking, including in 2005, before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus of the United States Congress.[7] In 2009, he was selected as a Fellow for the TEDIndia conference.[45]

In September 2011, Kara was sent by the U.S. Department of State to discuss anti-trafficking initiatives with the governments of Singapore[46] and Malaysia.[47] The Singapore government subsequently invited Kara to be the guest speaker at the launch of the country's first National Plan of Action on human trafficking in March 2012.

Personal

Kara spends his time between Los Angeles and London. He is married to neuroscientist Aditi Shankardass.[48]

References
  1. Siddharth Kara, Hart Leadership Alumnus, Institute of Policy Sciences and Public Affairs (now the Sanford School of Public Policy), Duke University
  2. Kara, Siddharth (January 2009). Sex Trafficking – Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. CUP. ISBN 978-0-231-13960-1.
  3. Foreign Exchange with Daljeet Dhaliwal on PBS
  4. Carr Center Fellows, Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University
  5. Marketplace with Kai Ryssdal Archived 10 July 2012 at archive.today on American Public Media Radio
  6. The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC Radio, New York
  7. Fighting Modern Slavery, TED Fellows Friday with Siddharth Kara
  8. Book Details: Main, Sex Trafficking, Columbia University Press
  9. Worldview with Jerome McDonnell on Chicago Public Radio
  10. Designing More Effective Laws Against Human Trafficking, Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights, Spring 2011
  11. Supply and Demand: Human Trafficking in the Global Economy, Harvard International Review, July 2011
  12. Twenty-First-Century Slaves: Combating Global Sex Trafficking, Solutions Journal, March 2011
  13. Sex-Trafficking: A Global Overview, World Politics Review, August 2010
  14. Kara, Siddharth. "Perspectives on Human Trafficking and Modern Forms of Slavery". Social Inclusion. 3 (1).
  15. Kara, Siddharth. "Perspectives on Human Trafficking and Modern Forms of Slavery". Social Inclusion. 5 (2).
  16. "Cobalt Red How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives". us.macmillan.com/.
  17. "FT Business Book of the Year Award shortlist". Books+Publishing. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  18. 2010 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Archived 15 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Gilder Lehrman Center, Yale University
  19. Book Details: Reviews, Sex Trafficking, Columbia University Press
  20. About Siddharth Kara, Idea Project Dinner with Siddharth Kara
  21. Sex Trafficking, Financial Times, 24 January 2009
  22. An unconscionable business Archived 19 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Stanford Social Innovation Review, January 2009
  23. Bonded Labour Archived 26 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Anti Slavery International
  24. Book Details: Main, Bonded Labor, Columbia University Press
  25. Bonded Labor Stretches from Third to First World, CNN Freedom Project
  26. Shrimp Exports to West Tied to Bonded Labor, CNN Freedom Project
  27. Tainted Carpets Report, FXB Center, Harvard University
  28. Book Details: Reviews, Modern Slavery, Columbia University Press
  29. Crime Inc.: Human Trafficking, CNBC, June 2011
  30. Can Human Trafficking Be Stopped, BBC World Debate
  31. Ending Modern-Day Slavery, The CNN Freedom Project
  32. On the trail of human trafficking, Siddharth Kara Blog, CNN
  33. Siddharth Kara becomes British Academy Global Professor, Nottingham University, 17 July 2020
  34. British Academy Global Professorships, Siddharth Kara, British Academy, July 2020
  35. Faculty, Staff and Affiliates, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University
  36. Adjunct Lecturer Siddharth Kara, New Faculty Feature, Harvard Kennedy School
  37. About Us, Program on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, Harvard University
  38. Interview with Lecturer Siddharth Kara, Blum Center, UC Berkeley
  39. Human trafficking raises health and economic concerns, UN Briefing, 22 February 2010
  40. UN International Criminal Law Conference on Sex Trafficking, Syracusa, Italy
  41. Web Features Archived 9 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Columbia University Press, Sex Trafficking
  42. Siddharth Kara Bibliography Archived 22 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Carr Center, Harvard Kennedy School
  43. Stanford University Archived 13 July 2012 at archive.today, California
  44. Apology Update Archived 7 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Kirk Douglas' Blog, June 2009
  45. Meet the TEDIndia Fellows, TEDIndia Fellows 2009
  46. Today talks to Siddharth Kara, Today Interview, October 2011
  47. Into the Lair of Traffickers Archived 1 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine, The Star Interview, October 2011
  48. TED Talk by Aditi Shankardass, TEDIndia 2009

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