Workshop & Keynote
Descriptions
General Sessions:
Friday:, Oct. 8
Nancy Newton Verrier, author of The Primal Wound will
talk on Strength and Vulnerability: the Paradox of Power.
Verrier is currently at work on a new book on personal
responsibility and the unhealthy embrace of victimhood.
Saturday,
Oct. 9
Nature, Nurture and the New Adoptee-Rights Activism:
Panel Discussion on Society's View of Adoptees and how they
affect the Adoptee Rights Struggle - Panel discussion with
authors, activists, sociologists, psychologists, and policy
experts
Sunday, Oct. 10
Professor Katarina Wegar, author of Adoption,
Identity, and Kinship: The Debate over Sealed Birth Records will
talk on Bad Seeds and Mythical Heroes: Images and Realities of
Adoption. Wegar, a sociologist and adoptee from Finland, has
taken American adoption reformers to task for pathologizing
adoption and glorifying blood ties at the expense of attaining
equal rights for adopted adults.
Workshop Sessions:
Friday, Oct. 8
- #1: Adoptee
Activism in America: BN, TIES, & RegDay (Julie Dennis, Mary Hunt) - A
multimedia presentation of adoptee activism in
America including video, slides and handouts chronicling
the movement from the Orphan Trains through Jean Paton,
ALMA, the AAC, CUB, Sunflower Birthmom, NCOB and Bastard
Nation. A brief history
of various Internet search activism programs will be
followed by an explanation of the vision of its creators
and current volunteers for their future growth.
- #2: Identity
Theft: Late Discovery Adoptees and other modalities of
family secrecy (Ron Morgan)
- #3: Open
Records and Human Rights: A Framework for Evaluating
Alleged Violations (Albert S. Wei)
This seminar will examine open records as a human rights
issue and present a framework for assessing the validity
of claims alleging human rights violations. Possible
relationships between alleged rights violations and
sealed records will be explored.
- #4: The
Democratic Process: Saul Alinsky & His Legacy
(Marlena Villers) - Much of Bastard Nation's approach to
civil rights and lobbying for change is based on the
teachings of famed community organizer Saul Alinsky. This
new video, by Bob Hercules and Bruce Orenstein, examines
the philosophy and legacy of Alinsky through the work of
two contemporary community organizations. (1999; 54:60)
- #5: Our
Adopted Child Taught Us Family Love: Adoption Narratives
In Popular Women's Magazines, 1935-1970 (Marley
Greiner) - Adoption has always been a
popular topic in women’s magazines. This
presentation will survey the way in which it has been
portrayed in popular women’s magazines published
during the years in which many of us were born and
adopted. Adoptee, birth parent and adoptive parent
narratives; celebrity adoptions; search and reunion
accounts; records access; blackmarket adoptions and
adoption agency practices will be covered and put into
the framework of adoption theory and practice at the time
of publication.
- #6: Internet
Search & Activism: A How-to Guide (Julie Dennis, Mary Hunt) -
An introduction to Internet adoption search and activism
including how to use the various online resources.
Handouts with resources. Q&A
- #7: Winning
the Battle, Winning the War: Tactics for Successful
Political Activism (Maureen Hogan) - Those who do not
learn history are doomed to repeat it. Historical
Perspectives on Success and Failure. "Ever
tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail Better."
- Samuel Beckett. State of adoption reform today. Where
we are- Where we're going. "The victorious army
first realizes the conditions for victory. then seeks to
engage in battle. The vanquished army fights first, then
seeks victory." Sun Tzu
- #8: Anonymity
in the Birthplace: a Humorous view of the Adoptee
Experience (Charles Filius) - A
tongue in cheek look at the reality of sealed records as
if it crossed over into everyday non-adoptee life. Would
Dr. Seuss be more endearing if 'Little Cindy Lu Who, who
was no more than two' was forced to read, 'Baby Girl Who,
who was no more than xxx'? Humorous observations by an
adoptee geared toward opening unseeing eyes that are, in
all probability sewn shut with industrial thread.
Discussing research, relationships, reunions and the
ruckus in between. And including the dramatic debut of
the Bastard Nursery Rhyme, "This is the Child that
Jack '''Dopt".
- #9: Speaking
in Public: Practical Tactics in Activism (John Peret)
- The workshop will present methods for
tailoring an activist's public speaking which will
include aspects such as facial expression, tone, clarity,
focus, content, things to avoid, things to do, things not
to do, etc. Particular attention will be focused on
designing an activist's speech to the audience they face,
i.e. the media, legislators, support groups and the
average person on the street.
Saturday, Oct. 9
- #10: Being
Found and Multiple Families (Sarah Saffian)
Journalist/author Saffian discusses being found by her
birthparents who married and had more children after her
relinquishment. Managing multiple families after
reconnection.
- #11: Irish
Adoption History, Reform & Search (Mari Steed,
Marie Batrow Heshka) - A presentation on the history of
adoption in Ireland, including past and present law,
reform efforts, groups active in the reform arena (BN,
APA, etc.), followed by Q&AA presentation of various
US and Irish documentaries produced in the last few years
concerning adoption. Resources,
advice, and search assistance for adult Irish-born
adoptees.
- #12: Understanding
Adoptees Who Kill: Dissociation, Homicide, and the
Psychodynamics of Adoption (David Kirschner) -
Kirschner claims that adoption is often the key to the
psychopathology of adopted killers. Cases of adoptees
accused of murder will be examined in light of a
hypothesized pattern of psychopathology, the Adopted
Child Syndrome.
- #13: "Reno
Finds her Mom" (Reno, Bastard Commedienne) - HBO comedy movie
about searching
Details on workshop and keynote presenters.
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