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)基因测试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、公民身份和归属感框架。在人种学方面，它侧重于围绕成年被领养人使用的DTC基因测试技术的论述、实践和政策。除了为人类学研究生在实证、科学数据收集和分析方法方面的培训提供资金外，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南，以了解基因测试和出生家庭搜索经验的影响。这一博士论文研究项目询问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，重点关注一种研究背景，即领养人数创历史新高，DTC基因测试技术在这些被领养人中的使用激增。参与者观察将与四个为被领养人和出生家庭提供基因检测服务的组织进行。DNA检测有可能在个人、家庭和国家范围内暴露创伤，并引发重大的社会、法律和道德问题。在这个由社会参与者和机构组成的网络中，这项研究询问DNA是如何被想象、构建和部署的，以产生关于身份、亲属关系、公民身份、归属感和记忆的个人和公共知识。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。