Why are you doing this project?

Often, I’m asked about the motivation for this research or my interest in it. The simple answer is that it’s a phenomenon about which we know very little. The complex (and more truthful) answer is that it stems from my own positionality and is deeply informed by my own experiences. There is something valuable in knowing you are not alone; that your experiences resonate as part of the larger human experience.

My interest in post-adoption and adoption-related issues is longstanding. It stems from my own identity as an adoptee and the journeys I travelled (and continue to travel) in developing my sense of self. When I began to listen to the stories of other adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents, I realized that every constellation member’s truth is partial. Realizing that your own story is myopically constrained and that a fuller truth relies on the knowledge and experiences of others (to whom your connection has been legally terminated) is difficult to reconcile. This study aims to have women share their individual stories with each other in order to develop a fuller understanding of their collective story.

Tell me a bit more...

I am using oral history to develop knowledge about how women connected through one adoption understand, experience, and think about specific life events or processes. These life events and processes include: the adoption stories, the search and reunion journeys, the experiences of birthdays and holidays, and the experiences of (not) becoming a parent. Oral histories interviews focus on the meanings that events hold for those who lived through them (Chase, 2005). The content and extent of oral history interviews are different from other types of interviews as they “seek an in-depth account of personal experience and reflections, with sufficient time allowed for the narrators to give their story the fullness they desire” (Oral History Association, 2009).

This dissertation study is supervised by Dr. Ben Anderson-Nathe, Professor, Child, Youth, & Family Studies , School of Social Work. He may be contacted at banders@pdx.edu.

This study has been granted exempt status (#196742-18) by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Portland State University (PSU).