Our May event, The Violence of Love and Ghostly Kinship in Adoptee Summer Camps, features a presentation and Q&A by Hong Kong adoptee and scholar, Kit Myers.

This talk examines two types of summer camps for adoptees: birth culture (or heritage) camps and a unique adoptee-run summer camp. It explores how these summer camps shape notions of community, family, culture, and identity in similar and different ways. It also considers how they attempt to address different forms of violence produced by adoption and love. More specifically, through the framework of ghostly kinship, it will explore the ways we can hold relationships with birth/first families that do not and are not supposed to exist.

Kit Myers is an assistant professor in the Department of History & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced. He received his doctorate and master’s degrees from the University of California, San Diego in ethnic studies and his bachelor’s degree in ethnic studies and journalism from the University of Oregon. Prior to his current position, he was a chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow at UC Merced. His research examines adoption, family, and kinship, specifically in the ways that they intersect with race, gender, sexuality, immigration, citizenship, nation, and indigenous sovereignty. Kit has published articles in Adoption Quarterly, Amerasia Journal, Adoption & Culture, and Critical Discourse Studies as well as co-edited a special issue on adoption and pedagogy. He also serves as an executive committee member of the Alliance for the Study of Adoption & Culture. Visit his website for more information on his research.

This is a virtual event and is open to the public. No registration is required.