The Russell Sage Foundation has generously offered a 20% discount on Mia Tuan and Jiannbin Lee Shiao’s new book Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America to AAAW members.  Simply go to www.russellsage.org and use the discount code AAAW11.

Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America

Mia Tuan and Jiannbin Lee Shiao

Transnational adoption was once a rarity in the United States, but Americans have been choosing to adopt children from abroad with increasing frequency since the mid-twentieth century. Korean adoptees make up the largest share of international adoptions—25 percent of all children adopted from outside the United States—but they remain understudied among Asian American groups. What kind of identities do adoptees develop as members of American families and in a cultural climate that often views them as foreigners? Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race is a study of this unique population that collected in-depth interviews with a multigenerational, random sample of adult Korean adoptees. The book examines how Korean adoptees form their social identities and compares them to native-born Asian Americans who are not adopted.

Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race is an examination of this little-studied American population and will make informative reading for adoptive families, adoption agencies, and policymakers. The authors demonstrate that while race is a social construct, its influence on daily life is real. This book provides an analysis of how potent this influence can be—for transnational adoptees and all Americans.

There are three adult adoptees seeking participants in research studies they are conducting.  If you are interested, see below:

Interviews Needed for Study About Birth Family Reunions
AAAW member and adult adoptee, Sara Docan-Morgan, is requesting interviewees for research she is conducting as an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.  She is conducting a research study that examines Korean adoptees’ reunions with their birth families and is interested in adoptees’ communication (or lack thereof) with their adoptive families about these reunions, as well as the communication that takes place with birth families before, during, and after reunions. Her overall goal is to better understand Korean adoptees’ birth family reunion experiences and the interactions that surround these reunions.  Please see the attached Word document for full details.  You may contact Sara at 507-450-3561 or at docan-mo.sara@uwlax.edu.

Exploring the In-Race Adoption of Asian Children
Kathleen Ja Sook Bergquist, Ph.D. is seeking participants for this study because there is a growing field of research that has explored the transracial adoption of Asian children into White homes, but there are, to date, no studies that have considered the experiences of Asian/Asian American families that adopt Asian children. Selection criteria are: a) prospective or adoptive parents of Asian or Asian American children, b) between the ages of 21-60, with c) at least one parent is Asian or Asian American [participation is requested from Asian parent(s)].

This is Phase II of this study. Phase I involved the completion of questionnaires (quantitative study) and Phase II will involve 30-45 minute interviews of adoptive parents.

Interviews can be conducted either in person or via phone dependent on geography and availability.  If interested, please contact at kathleen.bergquist@unlv.edu.

Stories of Transnational Adoptees and their American Parents
Korean Adoptees of Hawai’i (KAHI) is one of the primary sponsors of a research project that KAHI’s Vice President, Lisa Charlie de Morais Teixeira, is working on with her adoptive mother.  Their an adoption research project will explore the relationship between adult transnational adoptees and their adoptive parents. This project looks specifically at the manner in which adult transnational adoptees and their parents have negotiated the complex and often thorny issues related to adoptive, racial, and ethnic/cultural identity.  The research project has two complementary components:

The Dance of Identities: Korean Adoptees and Their Journey toward Empowerment

by John D. Palmer

Korean adoptees have a difficult time relating to any of the existing racial identity models because they are people of color who often grew up in white homes and communities. Biracial and nonadopted people of color typically have at least one parent whom they can racially identify with, which may also allow them access to certain racialized groups. When Korean adoptees attempt to immerse into the Korean community, they feel uncomfortable and unwelcome because they are unfamiliar with Korean customs and language. The Dance of Identities looks at how Korean adoptees “dance,” or engage, with their various identities (white, Korean, Korean adoptee, and those in between and beyond) and begin the journey toward self-discovery and empowerment.

Throughout the author draws closely on his own experiences and those of thirty-eight other Korean adoptees, mainly from the U.S. Chapters are organized according to major themes that emerged from interviews with adoptees. “Wanting to be like White” examines assimilation into a White middle-class identity during childhood. Although their White identity may be challenged at times, for the most part adoptees feel accepted as “honorary” Whites among their families and friends. “Opening Pandora’s Box” discusses the shattering of adoptees’ early views on race and racism and the problems of being raised colorblind in a race-conscious society. “Engaging and Reflecting” is filled with adoptee voices as they discover their racial and transracial identities as young adults. During this stage many engage in activities that they believe make more culturally Korean, such as joining Korean churches and Korean student associations in college. “Questioning What I Have Done” delves into the issues that arise when Korean adoptees explore their multiple identities and the possible effects on relationships with parents and spouses. In “Empowering Identities” the author explores how adoptees are able to take control of their racial and transracial identities by reaching out to parents, prospective parents, and adoption agencies and by educating Korean and Korean Americans about their lives. The final chapter, “Linking the Dance of Identities Theory to Life Experiences,” reiterates for adoptees, parents, adoption agencies, and social justice activists and educators the need for identity journeys and the empowered identities that can result.

The Dance of Identities is an honest look at the complex nature of race and how we can begin to address race and racism from a fresh perspective. It will be well received by not only members of the Korean adoption community and transracial parents, but also Asian American scholars, educators, and social workers.

John D. Palmer is associate professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Colgate University.  He is also a Korean adoptee and gave a presentation during the IKAA Gathering 2010 on The Dance of Identities.  For further information on this book and his studies, please contact John at jpalmer@colgate.edu.  In particular, any AAAW members who participated in the study are encouraged to contact him.

***SPECIAL OFFER THROUGH AAAW***
For a limited time, you may order this new book through AAAW at 40% OFF (regular price, $49.00).  If you are interested, please contact Jenny Kelly at vpcomm@aaawashington.org by November 15.  You may also pre-order the book through Amazon (book is available after December 30), but please contact Jenny for the best rate.