Doctoral Dissertation Research: Kinship Relations and Genetic Testing Technologies among Adult Adoptees

博士论文研究：成年被收养者的亲属关系与基因检测技术

• 批准号: 2049543
• 负责人: Eleana Kim
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-01 至 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2049543&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Kinship; Relations

The introduction of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetics testing has radically altered the landscape of birth family search. The research supported by this award will investigate the scales at which DNA testing reinforces or challenges existing frameworks of family, identity, citizenship, and belonging. Ethnographically, it focuses on the discourses, practices, and policies surrounding DTC genetic testing technologies used by adult adoptees. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the researcher will produce a guidebook for policymakers, government officials, social workers, educators, and fellow researchers to understand the implications of genetic testing and the birth family search experience. This doctoral dissertation research project asks how DNA testing reinforces or challenges existing frameworks of family, identity, citizenship, and the nation, focusing on a research context with a historically high concentration of adoptions and the proliferating use of DTC genetic testing technologies among those adoptees. Participant observation will be carried out with four organizations that offer genetic testing services to adoptees and birth families. DNA testing has the potential to expose trauma on individual, familial, and national scales, as well as raise significant social, legal, and moral questions. Across this network of social actors and institutions, this research asks how DNA is being imagined, constructed, and deployed to produce personal and public knowledge of identity, kinship, citizenship, belonging, and memory.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.

直接面向消费者（DTC）基因检测的引入从根本上改变了出生家庭搜索的格局。该奖项支持的研究将调查DNA测试在多大程度上加强或挑战现有的家庭、身份、公民身份和归属框架。在人种学上，它侧重于话语，实践和政策围绕DTC基因检测技术被成年被收养者使用。除了资助一名人类学研究生在经验、科学数据收集和分析方法方面的培训外，该研究人员还将为政策制定者、政府官员、社会工作者、教育工作者和其他研究人员编写一本指导手册，以了解基因检测和出生家庭搜索经验的含义。本博士论文研究项目探讨DNA测试如何加强或挑战现有的家庭、身份、公民身份和国家框架，重点关注历史上高度集中的收养和在被收养者中大量使用DTC基因测试技术的研究背景。参与者观察将与四个向被收养者和出生家庭提供基因检测服务的组织一起进行。DNA测试有可能暴露个人、家庭和国家层面的创伤，同时也会引发重大的社会、法律和道德问题。在这个社会行动者和机构的网络中，本研究探讨了DNA是如何被想象、构建和部署的，以产生个人和公众对身份、亲属关系、公民身份、归属感和记忆的认识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。