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

博士论文研究：收养亲属关系的道德和伦理基础

• 批准号: 1918093
• 负责人: Mike McGovern
• 金额: $ 2.17万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-08-01 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1918093&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Moral; Ethical

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.

人种学证据反复确定，共享遗传物质不是亲属关系的普遍基础。亲属关系在任何一般意义上都不能在生物学上或文化上预言。研究人类亲属关系复杂性的更清晰的站点之一是与非习惯收养亲属之间的社会关系。例如，在某些情况下，准父母将收养作为一种宗教经验，而不是人道主义的努力，或者只是希望增加其现有家庭。该项目培训了一名研究生的经验，科学数据收集和分析方法，探讨了宗教与跨国采用之间的关系。这项研究的发现将以一种方式传播，以帮助研究人员和政策制定者更好地了解亲属关系和宗教信仰是如何构成的。在密歇根大学的迈克尔·麦戈文（Michael McGovern）的监督下，该项目本身也有助于扩大传统上代表性不足的人的参与。这项研究将集中在乌干达，这是研究跨国采用变化的理想自然实验室，因为率迅速上升，直到《儿童修正案法案》使外国人很难收养儿童。尽管障碍越来越大，包括在乌干达居住一年以上以合法收养符合条件的孩子，但一些虔诚的基督徒仍致力于这个特定国家的收养过程。在调查中，他们的宗教是否激励他们远离家人和在美国或其他西方国家更加严重的条件，该项目将研究如何使用信仰在坎帕拉的孤儿院中形成家庭。该项目将使用民族志方法，包括参与者的观察，生活史收集和正式访谈，以理解收养的宗教信仰。这样做将使人们能够理解采用的理解，除了当前的辩论将其视为道德对还是错，从而为实践的未来提供了新的见解。还将使用档案研究，探讨这种情况如何成为西方传教士所寻求的，最终是他们选择收养儿童的地方。这些见解介绍了有关宗教，亲属关系，跨国采用以及基督徒的生活的辩论，而不是在媒体和学术文献中经常表现出刻画的刻画。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响来评估的支持，并被认为是值得的。