Formations: Thinking Kinship through Adoption

ASAC 2018 Seventh Biennial Conference
October 18-20, 2018
Oakland, CA

in cooperation with the Adoption Initiative

The Adoption Initiative logo resembles a house with a triangle top and rectangle bottom in black. "Adoption Initiative" is lowercase in the triangle in white and red lettering. A family of four is outlined as white figures on the black background..
 
Download Program

FEATURED SPEAKERS

  • Judith Butler

    Dr. Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a foundational figure in what has become contemporary queer and gender studies, defining the field in monographs such as Gender Trouble (1990), Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death (2000), and countless other books and essays. Her research probes the relationships among gender, sexuality, and kinship constructions. In recognition of her transformative thinking, Professor Butler has received numerous grants and awards, including an Andrew Mellon Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in the Humanities (2009-13) and a Guggenheim fellowship (1999). She has published over twenty books and many notable chapters and articles.

  • Julie Pelletier

    Dr. Julie Pelletier is Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Winnipeg and recently published the co-edited collection, Gambling on Authenticity: Gaming, the Noble Savage, and the Not-So-New Indian (2017). Trained as a cultural anthropologist specializing in Indigenous cultures and Indigenizing the academy, Professor Pelletier is also a first mother who relinquished her child for adoption and maintains a meaningful relationship with her daughter. Professor Pelletier’s lecture, “Thoughts from a Birth/First Mother on the Intersections of Culture, Class, and Profession,” touches on the trauma of government and missionary removal of Indigenous children from their families. Professor Pelletier’s reflections on being an Indigenous first parent is informed by her scholarship but also her social activism.

ADOPTION FILMMAKER PANEL ON CINEMATIC REPRESENTATION OF TRANSNATIONAL/TRANSRACIAL ADOPTION EXPERIENCE

  • A Korean American woman with short black hair and bangs faces forward with her arms crossed smiling. She wears a black three-quarters length top and black slacks. Behind her is a gray background.

    Deann Borshay Liem

    Deann Borshay Liem is a Korean adoptee, a director, a writer, and a producer of independent films with more than twenty years of experience. Director of the iconic transnational/transracial adoption film, First Person Plural (2000, Sundance), Borshay Liem documented her reunion with her birth family in Korea. Borshay Liem’s subsequent adoption-related projects—the award-winning In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee (2010) and Geographies of Kinship—The Korean Adoption Story (in progress)—keep probing the history and personal cost of Korean adoption. Among other projects, Borshay Liem co-directed Memory of a Forgotten War (2013) that documents the long-lasting impact of the Korean War on civilians on both sides of the DMZ. She is a recipient of a Rockefeller Film/Video Fellowship and a former director of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM). Currently, she is the head of Mu Films—a non-profit documentary production company that focuses on representing untold stories from underrepresented communities in the interest of social justice and deeper cultural understanding.

  • A Black French woman with her hair worn naturally faces forward wearing a purple pussybow blouse and gray blazer. She sits in front of a gray background.

    Amandine Gay

    Amandine Gay is a French transracial adoptee of African descent, a filmmaker, a scholar, an Afrofeminist, a social activist, and a journalist. She is the author of Ouvrir la Voix (Speak Up/Make Your Way in English, 2016), a documentary that gives voice to twenty-four French women with African origins in order to reflect on European Black women’s experiences of identity. Gay is the co-author of “Diasporic Conversations: Anglophone and Francophone Adoptees of the African Diaspora Encounter Each Other” published in Adoption Today (September 2016). Her second Master’s Degree in sociology is focused on transracial adoption, and she is often invited as a speaker on transracial adoption and Afrofeminism. As an artist and a social activist, Gay uses her personal adoption story and scholarly background to increase public interest in the politics of adoption.

Conference Updates

  • Dear ASAC/AI Conference Participants:

    As some of you may be aware, the hotel workers’ union for the Oakland Marriott City Center Hotel voted to initiate strike proceedings on September 18, 2018. Yesterday union members walked out and are actively on strike.

    To avoid any disruption of the conference, the ASAC/AI conference planning committee is working on alternative meeting space for our plenaries and breakout sessions. Though plans have yet to be finalized, we believe conference events will take place at the Oakland Asian Cultural Centre (388 9th Street) and Oakstop (274 14th Street). We are fortunate that these new spaces are close together in Downtown Oakland. For those who have purchased advance tickets, the banquet will still be at the Peony Seafood Restaurant (388 9th Street). An updated version of the program will be uploaded shortly that indicates the new locations.

    We understand that this situation may complicate conference logistics, but we also recognize that broad support for organized labor among individuals in our organization may have prevented a large number of presenters and other registrants from attending the conference in the case of a strike. For this reason, we felt we had no choice but to change the conference location in order to ensure the best conference experience possible for the largest number of participants. We are grateful for your support and patience as we make these adjustments and are confident that our conference will be a success at our new venues.

    If you have sleeping room reservations at the Marriott City Center, we believe they will be honored by the Marriott, but have not yet had final confirmation on this point. We have no way of knowing how long the strike at the Marriott will last; it may still be ongoing over the dates of our conference, or it may be resolved by that time. If you do not wish to cross a union picket line, you may wish to make alternate housing arrangements at a hotel that can be cancelled should the Marriott resolve its labor unrest before our conference. We will update you as soon as more information becomes available.

    If you have an questions or concerns, please contact the conference steering committee co-chairs, Cynthia Callahan or Jenny Wills.

    For information about the strike and alternate hotels in the area should you choose to rebook:

    —https://www.marriotttravelalert.org/

    —https://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/california/oakland/waterfront-hotel

    —http://www.zhoteljacklondonsquare.com/

    —https://www.choicehotels.com/california/oakland/clarion-hotels/cab03?source=gyxt

    —https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/oakcd-courtyard-oakland-downtown/ (This Marriott is covered under a separate labor contract.)

  • Dear ASAC/AI conference participants,

    We are pleased to be able to update you with the following details about our conference next week:

    The Oakland Marriott City Center has officially agreed to honor the room rates that we negotiated for our attendees. If you made reservations at the Marriott in our room block and decide to stay there, you need do nothing more. However, if you decide to cancel your reservations, please consult your confirmation statement for the cancellation policy to avoid incurring any penalties. Note that some people have had problems completing the transaction online, so you may need to call the 800-number. Please let us know if you have any problems with your cancellation; Marriott management has assured us there should be no issues.

    We have now updated our program and posted it to the conference website. It includes the locations of the plenaries and breakout sessions. We will also update the website to include links to the venues where the sessions are being held, so you can orient yourself to the area.

    We will provide box lunches before Friday’s afternoon breakout sessions. If you need a vegan or gluten free meal or have other special dietary needs, please contact Kim Park Nelson (parknelson@mnstate.edu) by Monday 10/15.

    We appreciate your patience with our last minute changes of venue; the decision to relocate from a struck hotel reflects ASAC’s values, and our wish to avoid the disruption to our conference that would be created if we were to ask you to cross a union picket line to attend.

    Moving to venues outside of the hotel has created unanticipated costs of nearly $5000.00 for the organization. If you care to donate to ASAC to support the conference and help offset the costs associated with replanning the venue for the conference, please follow this link:

    DONATE NOW

    For information about the strike and alternate hotels in the area should you choose to rebook:

    —https://www.marriotttravelalert.org/

    —https://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/california/oakland/waterfront-hotel

    —http://www.zhoteljacklondonsquare.com/

    —https://www.choicehotels.com/california/oakland/clarion-hotels/cab03?source=gyxt

    —https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/oakcd-courtyard-oakland-downtown/ (This Marriott is covered under a separate labor contract.)

    If you have an questions or concerns, please contact the conference steering committee co-chairs, Cynthia Callahan or Jenny Wills.