Politics of Child Adoption in 20th Century

/ Termine

Politics of Child Adoption in 20th century

Veranstalter
Prof. Dr. Bettina Hitzer, director of the Institute "History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine", Magdeburg; Prof. Thomas Lindenberger, former director of Hannah-Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies, Dresden
Veranstaltungsort
Festung Mark, Hohepfortewall 1
Gefördert durch
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
PLZ
39104
Ort
Magdeburg
Land
Deutschland
Findet statt
In Präsenz
Vom - Bis
08.01.2025 - 10.01.2025
Website
https://get.med.ovgu.de/politics_of_child_adoption_in_20th_century.html
Von
Bettina Hitzer, Geschichte, Ethik und Theorie der Medizin, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg

Adoption is a controversial issue, more so today than ever before. Criticism is aimed at all facets of this “kinship by design”. The heated debate is not only concerned with the conditions determining whether adoption is in the best interest of the child. The family, social and population policy logic behind the concept of adoption is also increasingly being called into question. Adoption as a humanitarian intervention is ever more challenged. Reappraisal projects initiated by activists are shedding light on the colonial and post-colonial interests that often lurk behind the adoption project.

Politics of Child Adoption in 20th century

The conference will focus on the following aspects of adoption policies:

- adoption as an instrument of those in power to weaken and destroy family ties and social resources of political opponents and their milieus, both in domestic and international conflicts
- adoption as a means of disempowering and disintegrating marginalized social groups and ethnicities in colonial and post-colonial societies, but also in modern welfare state systems
- adoption and the politics of transitional justice in post-autocratic transformation processes
- the significance of international adoptions for networks of humanitarian aid and care and their relationship to political and social inequalities and (postcolonial) power asymmetries
- the interdependence of national and international adoption policies
- the relationship between state and non-governmental sector and private actors in the field of adoption as well as their potentially divergent goals and interests

Guests are welcome to attend. The conference fee is €80 (with lunch) or €30 (without lunch).

Please register by December 16, indicating your chosen option (with or without lunch), to Annett Göth: annett.goeth@med.ovgu.de

Programm

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

2.00 pm Welcome and Introduction

2.30-4.30 pm Panel 1: Adoption and Welfare State Governance

Hege Beate Stein Helland (University of Bergen/Norway): When the state decides: Adoptions from care in Norway and England

Derek Kirton (University of Kent/UK): The Politics of Adoption for Racially Minoritised Children in the UK: exploring the 20th century roots of ongoing controversy

Commentator: Agnes Arndt (HAIT, Dresden)

4.30-5.00 pm Coffee break

5.00-6.30 pm Keynote Lecture

Iuliia Skubytska (Bard College/USA): “Russian Mercy”: Forced Adoptions of Ukrainian Children during the Russo-Ukrainian War

Thursday, January 9, 2025

9.00-11.00 am Panel 2: Adoption and (Post)Coloniality

Joanne Faulkner (Macquarie University, Sidney/Australia): Adoption as apparatus of colonial of colonial governance: representing Aboriginal childhood on stolen land

Raven Sinclair (George Gordon First Nation University/Canada): Colonialism and the biopolitical underpinnings of the First Nation, Métis, and Inuit child removal systems in Canada, 1950-2024

Commentator: Benedikt Stuchtey (Philipps University Marburg)

11.00-11.30 am Coffee break

11.30-1.30 pm Panel 3: Adoption and political repression and (post)warfare

Peter Anderson (University of Leeds/UK): Adoption and civil war: Franco’s Spain as a case of Mass Child Removal

Barbara Klich-Kluczewska (Jagiellonian University Krakow/Poland): Adoption Practices and the Orphan Crisis in Post-War Poland (1945-1949)

Commentator: Frank Henschel (CAU Kiel)

1.30-2.30 pm Lunch

2.30-4.30 pm Panel 4: Importing Adoption, Exporting Children: Adoption in (Post-)Colonial Contexts

Yves Denéchère (Université d’Angers/France): Illicit practices in international adoption in France (1960s-2000) : What responsibilities?

Simonella Tanguy-Domingos (CEPED/Université de Paris/France): Children adoptions from Benin to France: historical influences, diplomacy and paradigmatic changes

Commentator: Till Kössler (MLU Halle)

4.30-5.00 pm Coffee Break

5.30-7.30 Exhibition “Niños robados. Gestohlene Kinder. Stolen children“ (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin); engl./dt.

Introduction: Anna Kaminsky (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung)
Stadtbibliothek Magdeburg

Friday, January 10, 2025

9.00 Uhr-11.00 am Panel 5: Taking Children: Political Interests and Illicit Networks

Gonda Van Steen (King’s College, London/UK): Cold War Stories: The Adoption of Greek Children in the United States, 1950-1960s

Jessaca B. Leinaweaver (Brown University/US): The Adoption of Children from Peru in Spain

Commentator: Isabella Löhr (FU Berlin/ZZF Potsdam)

11.00-11.30 am Coffee break

11.30-1.30 pm Panel 6: Care Meets Racism: South Koreans into Europe

Koo Young Eun (Harvard – Lund University/Sweden): Modernizing the Care System and Liberal Social Work in Post-Liberation South Korea

Tobias Hübinette (Karlstad University/Sweden): 2Race, Color-Blindness and International Adoption in Sweden

Commentator: You Jae Lee (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

1.30-2.30 pm Lunch

2.30-3.30 pm Final Discussion / Conclusion

Kontakt

Annett Göth: annett.goeth@med.ovgu.de

https://get.med.ovgu.de/politics_of_child_adoption_in_20th_century.html