Global efforts to combat human trafficking have received concerted attention from global governance institutions, nation states, civil society, academic, faith-communities, the private sectors, and even Hollywood actors and NFL quarterbacks. “Whitewashing Abolition” convenes scholars, activists, and human trafficking survivors to questions the various institutional displacements that occur in contemporary human trafficking abolitionist projects and politics. Focusing on the institutional power of whiteness--and related forms of Global North policy imperatives, funding regimes, humanitarian sentimentality, and institutional erasure--this conference asks how efforts to combat human trafficking can move beyond “White Saviorism” towards engaged global solidarity.