Points of Origin: Finding Self in Critical Adoption Studies Research

Abstract

As a Korean adoptee engaged in critical adoption studies research, my personal perspectives and academic pursuits are inherently intertwined. Because I come from an interdisciplinary Ethnic Studies background, the scholars and writers who influence and inform my work are diverse in their perspectives, disciplines, and methodologies. In my own research, I draw from the creative voices of transracial adoptee writers, frameworks of gendered colonialism, the interdisciplinary field of Asian American Studies, and the emerging scholarship of Korean adoption studies. My academic engagement with these bodies of research and wisdom has led to not only clarity in my own research, but has contributed to defining my sense of self as a transracial, transnational adoptee.