Doctoral Dissertation Research: Moral and Ethical Foundations in Adoptive Kin Relations

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Ethnographic evidence has repeatedly established that shared genetic material is not a universal foundation for relations of kinship; kin relations cannot be biologically or culturally predetermined in any general sense. One of the clearer sites for examining the complexities of human kin relations is with the social relations between non-consanguine adoptive kin. In some cases, for example, prospective parents express adoption as a religious experience, as opposed to a humanitarian endeavor or simply a wish to add to their existing families. This project, which trains a graduate student in methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores the relationship between religion and transnational adoption. The findings of this research will be disseminated in such a way to aid researchers and policy-makers to better understand how kin relations and religiosity are constituted. The project itself also contributes to broadening the participation of individuals traditionally underrepresented in science. Christine Chalifoux, under the supervision of Dr. Michael McGovern of the University of Michigan asks whether religious calling is the foundation for Evangelical nuclear families who choose to adopt children, and what role this has in the practice of transnational adoption. This research will be centered in Uganda, an ideal natural laboratory for studying changes in transnational adoption as rates were rapidly rising until the Children Amendment Act made it significantly more difficult for foreigners to adopt children. Despite increasing obstacles, which include residing in Uganda for over one year in order to legally adopt an eligible child, some devout Christians remain committed to the adoption process in this particular country. In investigation whether their religion is inspiring them to live away from their family and in more austere conditions than in the United States or other Western countries, this project will examine how faith is being used to form families at an orphanage in Kampala. This project will use ethnographic methods, including participant observation, life history collection, and formal interviews, in order to comprehend the religiosity of adoption. Doing so will enable an understanding of adoption beyond the current debates that situate it as morally right or wrong, offering new insight into the future of the practice. Archival research will also be used explore how this context emerged as one sought out by Western missionaries, and eventually a place from where they chose to adopt children. These insights inform debates about the intersection of religion, kinship, transnational adoption, and the lived worlds of Christians beyond often-superficial portrayals in the media and academic literature. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.