I’ll be busy the next couple weeks, but I’ll be checking in. I am, dare I admit it? Conference hopping ! Next week I’ll head out for Pittsburgh to attend the 2nd conference of the Association for the Study of Adoption, Identity and Kinship– Encountering New Worlds of Adoption. Two years ago at the first conference at the University of Tampa I presented a paper on the representation of first mothers in film–Where We Came From– which you can find in the DB November 21, 2005. (Blogger doesn’t do its own links very well.) Later it was published in the PACER Newsletter (Post Ado9ption Center for Education & Research).
Speakers and presenters this year include BJ Lifton, Lorraine Dusky, Sandra Patton-Imani, Jill Deans, Emily Hipchen and Bastardette’s old friend, Craig Hickman. (I also wrote about this conference on December 15, 2006) Viewing adoption through literature and art gives a whole new perspective and meaning to just how screwed up adoption really is. I mean, one only has to read (or better yet attend) an Albee play to see that.
I am especially interested in Sally Hanslanger (Philosophy and Women’s Studies, MIT), “Family, Ancestry, and Self: What is the Moral Significance of Biological Ties?;” Juliette M. Ludeker (English, Purdue University), “From Planned to Miracle: The Use of Metaphor in Adoption Webpages;” Cynthia Ninivaggi (Anthropology, Georgia Court University), “Lessons from Their Silence: Twentieth Century Relinquishment and ‘Expert Discourse’;” Susan Marie Harrington, (English and Women’s Studies, Indiana University/Purdue University–Indianapolis) “Adoption Online: The Creation of Narrative Spaces and Identity;” Miriam Klevan (Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University), “Meant to be Ours: The Uses of Fate in the Narratives of Adoptive Parents;”…….and of course, Cindy L Baldassi (Law, University of British Columbia), “Constituted by Law: Adoptive Identity in Disclosure Debates.”
Bastardette’s old friends poet/writer Maryanne Cohen and filmmaker Sheila Ganz are part of Friday’s “Evening of Adoption Memoir, Film” session.
If four days of highbrow talk seems exhausting, it’s not. It’s really quite accessible and non-academics can feel at home.
I don’t know if it’s too late to register, but you can read more about the conference at their website. If you’re in the Pittsburgh area check it out.
After this uplifting event, it’s back in the dog trenches. I’ve been invited to be a member of the Legislative Panel and the Meet the Bloggers panel reception at the Ethics and Accountability conference in Alexandra, VA co-sponsored by Ethica and the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute the day after the ASAIK event ends. I’m writing about that separately.