Lea VanderVelde, Josephine R. Witte Chair and professor of law at the University of Iowa, led a dialogue about domestic slavery in Minnesota and the Northwest as part of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize forum on Monday, June 6.

VanderVelde, who has long-held ties to Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi and played a part in his nomination for several years until his selection in 2014, is one of several experts on issues related to slavery who are scheduled to speak during the three-day forum in Bloomington, Minnesota.

As a leading expert on the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, which brought national attention to slavery when the U.S. Constitution prevented Congress from banning it, VanderVelde discussed the invisibility of domestic slavery through the lens of Dred Scott just a few miles from where his story took place.

VanderVelde first met Satyarthi through her research interest in combating slavery. She later visited him in India, where she learned more about his organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, the “Save Childhood Movement.”

For more information on the forum and VanderVelde’s dialogue session, “You Never Know Where You May Find Domestic Slavery—Slavery in Minnesota and the Northwest Before the Civil War,” visit the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize Forum’s website: http://nobelpeaceprizeforum.org/2016-forum/.