A Critical Adoption Dialogue about the Race-Family-Nation Nexus

Abstract

abstract: Adoption & Culture 's series of anniversary articles has affirmed critical adoption studies (CAS) as a growing, diverse, and continually relevant field of inquiry. As part of this endeavor, two adoption scholars created a collaborative dialogue on what it means to "do" CAS from the unique but overlapping perspectives of their two distinct research projects: Dorow's sociological work on late twentieth century China-US adoption and Stevenson's historical work on mid-twentieth century Indigenous adoption in Canada. Reflecting together on their respective approaches and methodologies, they focus on the intimate politics of kinship-nation-race that animate both of these contexts of adoption, while also noting the specific questions and issues that emerge from each distinct context. The conclusion offers three questions for the ongoing work of CAS and asserts the need for more interdisciplinary and pluralistic studies across seemingly disparate cases.