CFP: HISTORIC AND CURRENT PERSPECTIVES ON INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION AND COLD WAR MATERNALISM IN THE US

 

Call for Chapters: Historic and Current Perspectives on International 

Adoption and Cold War Maternalism in the US

University of Minnesota - Duluth

Historian Molly Ladd-Taylor defines maternalism as a politicized ideology that combined a uniquely feminine value system of care and nurturance with a woman’s capacity for motherhood and duty to properly raise future generations of citizens. Other scholars have referred to maternalism, and therefore motherhood, as an institution, a form of government. They have asserted the white, Christian, and modern aspects of motherhood, especially with respect to nation-building. 

During the Cold War era in the United States, maternalism underwent a transformation due to the prioritization of sustaining middle-class families because of collective fears of the spread of communism. Cold War maternalism builds from all of these definitions and expands motherhood to parenthood, more specifically, adoptive parenthood. Using the immediate aftermath of the Korean War as a beginning contextual point, Cold War maternalism asserts that by adopting biracial Korean children into white American homes, American adoptive parents not only fulfilled their civic duty to build and maintain middle-class, nuclear families, but also built a broader ideology that the United States was the only fit “mother” to the children of postwar South Korea. 

Even though our socio-cultural and political contexts have shifted since the mid 1950s, this broader aspect of maternalism can certainly be applied to other child-removal schemes throughout American history, as well as contemporary issues related to foster care, family separations at the U.S. – Mexico border, and international transracial adoption from other countries.

Objective:

This book will aim to provide relevant topical information that examines child-removal schemes, both historic and contemporary, using a Cold War maternalist framework. Contents may include relevant theoretical frameworks, and empirical research findings in areas of foster care, adoption, and family separation from a maternalist perspective. It will be written for professionals who want to improve their understanding of how the features of maternalism in general, and more specifically, Cold War maternalism, have been a part of the American child welfare system with respect to child-removal, and the impacts of this throughout history and within current contexts.

 

Guidelines:

Researchers and writers are invited to submit on or before May 25, 2019, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of their proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by June 15, 2019 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by August 23, 2019, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions.

All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project. 

Note: 

There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Historic and Current Perspectives on International Adoption and Cold War Maternalism in the US. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-blind peer review editorial process. 

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery®TM online submission manager.

More information.

For any questions and inquiries please contact Shawyn C. Lee, University of Minnesota - Duluth, at sclee@d.umn.edu