Hughes is a life-long advocate of freedom and human rights for women. She is a strong opponent of all forms of violence against women and exploitation. She holds the Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies, and is a professor in gender and women’s studies and criminology and criminal justice at the University of Rhode Island. She conducts research on human trafficking, particularly the sexual exploitation and trafficking of women and girls. In 2017, she was awarded the University of Rhode Island’s College of Arts and Sciences Annual Research Award; and she was awarded the Alice Paul Award for Women Who Have Worked to Confront Men’s Violence Against Women by the Committee on Feminist Movement History of the National Organization for Men Against Sexism. In 2010, she was awarded the URI Council on Research Annual Research Award; and she was awarded the Norma Hotaling, Josephine Butler Award for “challenging the status quo and creating new abolitionist policy or approach to sex trafficking in the United States.” In 2016, Hughes founded a peer-reviewed, academic journal Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence. She is the Editor-in-Chief.
