On behalf of the Planning Committee for the 8th Biennial Adoption Conference at St. John’s University, we invite proposal submissions for papers and research manuscripts that address issues likely to impact individuals and families touched by adoption. This Call for Papers specifically targets adoption professionals, researchers, scholars, practitioners, and graduate students. We are especially interested in receiving proposals that address the 2014 conference theme, “Sleeping Giants in Adoption: Power, Privilege, Politics, and Class.”
In keeping with our ongoing goal to present thought-provoking themes relevant to the training of mental health professionals as well as to the personal growth and deeper understanding of adoption triad members, our 2014 conference will consider the intersections between the “sleeping giants” in adoption. The Committee welcomes proposals that tie directly to the conference theme, especially proposals that illustrate the ways that adoption (as it is typically practiced) tends to privilege certain voices and perspectives while downplaying those of marginalized groups.
The history of U.S. adoption is rooted in social reform movements led by individuals and groups with greater access to power and privilege that set about to design child welfare interventions and social engineering plans for the children of families with less access to such social and political capital. The 2014 conference will give special consideration to exposing the connections between social class, power, politics, and privilege in adoption. We seek proposals particularly that address these connections, both historically and in contemporary adoption practice.
The 2014 conference theme highlights both historical and emerging practices in adoption, with a critical eye on considerations of whose privileges have been preserved, are currently being served, and whose interests should be better served. Papers and presentations should include a critical consideration of power, politics, and privilege and/or the role of social class in adoption.
