On Wednesday April 21, the Centre for Gender and Diversity (CGD) and the Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development (GTD) research programme will have a joint colloquium on transnational adoption, from 15.30 – 17.30.
There will be two presentations: by Chiara Candaele and Sophie Withaeckx.
When: Wednesday 21 April, 15.30 – 17.00
Where: Zoom: https://maastrichtuniversity.zoom.us/j/98639817685?pwd=OGdTL1pBeVp3ZDVGbU9lcEdlMUdmQT09
Meeting ID: 986 3981 7685
Password: 481411
Chiara Candaele, Mother Metropole. Transnational adoptions of Rwandan minors in postcolonial Belgium
During this presentation, I problematise the popular and widely disseminated assumption that transnational adoption originated in the wake of U.S. Cold War interventions. Investigating transnational adoptions of Rwandans minors in postcolonial Belgium, I explore continuities and departures with regards to child separations during Belgian colonial rule in Ruanda-Urundi. Doing so, I wish to 1) argue for a revised genealogy of transnational adoption by excavating its colonial and missionary roots and 2) yield transnational adoption as a lens through which we can explore how (post)colonial attitudes and networks were shaped and maintained in the former metropole.
Chiara Candaele is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Political History at the University of Antwerp. She is currently writing a dissertation on the history of transnational adoption in Belgium, which she explores from a (bio)political and postcolonial perspective. Additionally, she works as a scientific collaborator at the State Archives (Brussels), where she is affiliated with the research project ‘Resolution-Metis’. She is a member of the international research network ‘Children as Objects and Actors of Colonial Change’ (COACC).
Sophie Withaeckx, In Search of Humanity: Adoption and the Question Who We Are
In this presentation, I problematise dominant understandings of adoptees’ ‘need to search’. The question ‘why adoptees search’ is central in adoption research, and is often answered by referring to two seemingly conflicting perspectives. From a biocentric point of view, the importance of biogenetic ties is centralised and adoptees’ reconnection with their ‘real’ families and ‘cultures’ of origin is seen as indispensable for their well-being. Another perspective rejects essentialist notions of identity and encourages adoptees to ‘choose’ their own origin stories and families. Informed by post-modern constructivist notions of identity, this perspective discards essentialist views of identity and ‘roots’, and may consider adoptees’ desire to search as illusory and futile. I argue that both of these understandings of adoption are informed by particular Eurocentric ideas of humanity, kinship and identity which erase the variety of adoptees’ experiences; hence their complexity and inherent ambiguities become illegible. Drawing on postcolonial theory, I propose alternative frameworks for understanding identity, that recognise both the importance of biology ánd the need for narrativity as fundamental human needs. This implies accepting all needs expressed by adoptees as fundamentally human and recognising their claims as claims for social justice. It also means expanding our view on what it means to be human and recognising other ‘genres of being human’, opening up to ways of being and caring not recognised in current adoption practices.
Sophie Withaeckx is assistant professor in philosophy (UD) at Maastricht University. Previously, she held post as coordinator and post-doc researcher at RHEA (Centre of Expertise on Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel), and as lecturer and researcher at Odisee University College. She holds master degrees in African Languages & Cultures (UGent), International Politics (University of Antwerp, and a doctorate in Philosophy and Moral Sciences (VUB). In her current research, she explorer how normative concepts of ‘the human’ inform institutional spaces and practices. On the one hand, she examines discourses and practices of diversity and decolonisation in higher education. On the other hand, she is involved in research examining how taken-for-granted notions of humanness and ‘the family’ underlie ethics and practice in transnational adoption.
