Transnational adoption is embedded in systems of global capitalism, U.S. militarism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. Disrupting dominant narratives of adoption as uniformly positive, adoptee activists grapple with transnational adoption’s relationship with global inequality. In the wake of increased deportations under the Trump administration, Asian adoptee activists are organizing around social justice issues including adoptees without citizenship, deportation, and family preservation. Through ethnographic interview and participant-observation, this project addresses how Asian American adoptees construct adoptee identity in relation to the inequality inherent in transnational adoption, and articulate a politics of social justice within the United States.

Advisor: Elena Shih (American Studies)