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

人种学证据一再证明，共有的遗传物质不是亲属关系的普遍基础；亲属关系不能在任何一般意义上从生物或文化上预先确定。考察人类亲属关系复杂性的一个更清晰的切入点是非血缘收养亲属之间的社会关系。例如，在某些情况下，未来的父母表示收养是一种宗教体验，而不是一种人道主义努力，或者只是希望增加他们现有的家庭。该项目对研究生进行实证、科学数据收集和分析的方法培训，探索宗教和跨国收养之间的关系。这项研究的结果将以这样的方式传播，以帮助研究人员和政策制定者更好地理解亲属关系和宗教信仰是如何构成的。该项目本身也有助于扩大传统上在科学界代表性不足的个人的参与。在密歇根大学迈克尔·麦戈文博士的监督下，Christine Chalifoux询问宗教呼召是否是选择收养儿童的福音派核心家庭的基础，以及这在跨国收养实践中起到了什么作用。这项研究将集中在乌干达，这是研究跨国收养变化的理想自然实验室，因为在儿童修正案大幅增加外国人收养儿童的难度之前，收养儿童的比例一直在迅速上升。尽管障碍越来越多，包括为了合法收养合格儿童而在乌干达居住一年以上，但一些虔诚的基督徒仍然致力于这个特定国家的收养进程。在调查他们的宗教是否在激励他们远离家人，并在比美国或其他西方国家更恶劣的条件下生活时，这个项目将调查坎帕拉一家孤儿院是如何利用信仰组建家庭的。本项目将使用人种学方法，包括参与者观察、生活史收集和正式访谈，以了解收养的宗教信仰。这样做将使人们能够理解采用，而不是目前将其定位为道德上正确或错误的争论，为实践的未来提供新的见解。档案研究也将被用来探索这种背景是如何成为西方传教士寻找的背景，并最终成为他们选择收养儿童的地方。这些见解为关于宗教、亲属关系、跨国收养和基督徒生活世界的辩论提供了信息，超越了媒体和学术文献中往往肤浅的描述。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.