Call for Papers: 2 Day Symposium Adoption in Australia: Contemporary Cultural,Theoretical and Political PerspectivesJuly 3-4, 2008
Monash University, Clayton Campus, Melbourne

Background to the Symposium

Adoption, as Lisa Berebitsky writes, provides an ideal window through which to view prevalent understandings of family and its constituents, who may be ‘included’ within family as children and parents, and who may not. Adoption has been seen as both the
‘mimicker’ of the normative natal family and as a potentially radical site from which the dominant script of family may be challenged and re-written. Similarly, the phenomenon of inter-country adoption enables us to consider these issues in relation to ideas of nation and race, again raising questions about inclusion, cultural difference and authenticity. Research into adoption across a range of humanities and social science disciplines is advanced in the United States. However, in Australia, there is comparatively little
work on adoption policy and practices and their history and cultural significance. This symposium aims to address this by bringing into view some of the distinctive features of the history and culture of adoption in Australia. Outline for the Symposium.

�This symposium will bring together approximately 15-20 researchers from a range of
disciplinary backgrounds. These researchers will present their work with a view to contributing to a collection of essays on the topic of adoption.

We anticipate that the collection will be co-edited by the convenors and that the final version of papers will reflect the interchange of ideas and perspectives from the symposium. This collection will play a significant role in bringing contemporary
multi-disciplinary and critical perspectives to bear on adoption and address a gap in Australian scholarship on adoption. As such it will provide a key text for scholars and students seeking to understand this important subject. It is further hoped that the symposium will provide a networking opportunity for adoption researchers to plan
future research and collaborations.

If you are interested in participating in the symposium, please send a 200 word proposal to convenor Ceridwen Spark (Ceridwen.Spark@arts.monash.edu.au) by Friday 29th February 2008. Participants will be chosen on the basis of these proposals.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 9:01 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.