Sessions

Presenters: Mr. Huh & Mrs. Kim
Audience: All Gathering participants

Speakers will share personal narratives from the Korean War and how Korea has evolved over the past 60 years.

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Presenter: Sarah Park, Ph.D.
Audience: All Gathering partipants

Since 1955, more than 50 American children’s and young adult books have been published that depict some aspect of transnational/transracial Korean adoption. However, most of the authors are white American females, few are told from the perspectives of adopted Koreans, and as a collective body they fail to tell the long and complex history and contemporary experiences regarding Korean transracial adoption. The purpose of this workshop is to share the trends and issues in children’s literature publishing, provide some preliminary training on how to write for children and break into the publishing market, and assist with creating drafts and/or outlines.

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Presenters:Christopher Albrizio, Allen Majors, Danae Kovac & Sue Gaeta
Audience: Adoptees only

This panel-style workshop will discuss the topic of faith and spiritual experience and how it may or may not connect with the adoptee experience. A panel of Korean adoptees from a diverse spectrum of faith experiences will discuss their experiences with faith (positive, negative, and everything in between) and how they feel it may or may not have connections and effects on their adoptee experiences. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end.

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Presenters: Tobias Hübinette, Eleana Kim, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs & Kim Langrehr
Audience: All Gathering participants

Members of Tuesday’s Research Symposium Selection Committee will discuss the current state of Korean Adoption Studies as well as some of the highlights and challenges of being a Korean adoptee working within the field. Attendees will have a chance to ask general questions to the researchers in a more informal setting.

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Presenter: Stephen Morrison
Audience: All Gathering participants

This session will examine the development and changes in the domestic adoption program in Korea during the past decade by discussing its origin, the process, and the results. Some other topics will include the summary view of the current changes in the Korean adoption laws, the formation on the Korea Central Adoption Resources (KCARE) and a topic on why the presenter believes adoption should continue (both domestically and internationally) in light of many differing views.

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Presenters: Liselotte Hae-Jin Birkmose, San-Ho (Park) Correwyn & Lisa Ellingson
Audience: All Gathering participants

Post Adoption Services are important not only for adopted children and adoptive families, but also for adult adoptees.  For adult Korean adoptees, these services traditionally include things like counseling, birth family search assistance, and advice about visiting Korea. However, as the community of Korean adoptees changes, our needs, desires, and preferences regarding Post Adoption Services are changing as well.  Join us for a facilitated group discussion about the current state of Post Adoption Services and the existing needs in the adult Korean adoptee community.  Guest speaker San-Ho Correwyn will present the work of Geadopteerd.be from Belgium, an ambitious project that provides a dynamic platform for adoptees to communicate, socialize, and participate in adoption debates worldwide.  In addition, guest speakers Liselotte Birkmose and Lisa Ellingson will present IKAA’s positions on Post Adoption Services, which IKAA submitted at the 2005 and 2010 Special Commissions on the Hague Treaty on Intercountry Adoption.  Attendees will also have a chance to exchange ideas about what changes, if any, should be made to Post Adoption Services in the future.

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Presenters: Zen Master Dae Bong Sunim
Audience: All Gathering participants

This workshop intends to share with the greater adoptee community various introductory meditation techniques. There will be some seated meditation, walking meditation, a dharma talk about identity, and a Q&A on anything attendees may want to talk about in a safe and supportive environment. Meditation has been proven to help calm the mind, usher forth clarity, as well as heal the body, while lessen ailments and slow the aging process.

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Presenter: Deborah S. Napier
Audience: All

This session provides a summary and description of adoptee first return visits to Korea, specifically attachments to Korean authentic architecture and design. Adoptees often report life changing experiences and associate meaning to objects as representation of experiences. These objects are often incorporated into residential living spaces. Data for this presentation was collected via an online questionnaire from 451 participants from 11 countries.

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Presenters: Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Tobias Hübinette, Jane Jeong Trenka & Ross Oke
Audience: All Gathering participants

TRACK (Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea) is an activist group based in Seoul that advocates for full knowledge of past and present Korean adoption practices to protect the human rights of adult adoptees, children, and families. TRACK members will talk about how their work in coalition with various groups, especially those run by Korean nationals, over the past three years has led to positive and changes in Korea’s adoption system. Members will also give an overview of the adoption system from Korea today, touching on the issue of “unwed mothers,” as well as talk about the importance of keeping track of past practices through a process of “truth and reconciliation.”

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Presenter: Karin Lim
Audience: All Gathering participants

Through use of collage, an expressive art medium, adoptees will be able to explore the many facets of our identity.  Often times, these feelings and thoughts cannot easily be expressed through words alone.  Participants will be led through a mixed media collage exercise and have the opportunity to process and discuss their experience afterward with other adoptees in the group.  Facilitator, Karin Lim, will also share insights of her own personal journey as a Korean adoptee and social worker/art therapist.  In 2007, she moved to Korea and is now using art therapy with orphan children, single mothers at Aeranwon Women’s Shelter, and adoptees.

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Presenters: Ji Young Jang & Joo Ae Shin
Audience: All Gathering participants

This presentation will discuss a newly created Social Enterprise (a business looking to solve/relief a social problem) called Little J Family & Co that intends to allow unwed mothers and adoptees to collaborate to create a space and business of mutual understanding.  As more unwed mothers are choosing to keep their children and more adoptees are returning to visit and live in Korea, this place will provide a space for each party to learn and take advantage of each others knowledge.

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Presenter: John D. Palmer, Ph.D.
Audience: All Gathering participants

"The Dance of Identities" delves into Korean adult adoptees’ identity explorations through their critical reflections. The manuscript outlines their identity journey through the investigation of their dances with their culturally white, their racially Korean, and transracial adoptee identities. A major aspect of this journey was discovering that the source of their disempowerment came from their desires to gain recognition as either an "authentic" White or Korean.  From this awakening, some were able to empower their racial and transracial adoptee identities, which ultimately led to enacting aspect of social justice around specific issues of transracial adoption and broader concerns of oppression.

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Presenter: Johnny Collins
Audience: All Gathering participants

This workshop session is for adoptees that have an interest or desire to move to Korea and work.  This session will provide answers to all of your questions from the experiences of someone who has lived and worked in Seoul for the past 15 years.

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Presenter: Shawyn Lee, MSW, LGSW
Audience: All Gathering participants

This workshop will discuss how Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) identities provide a unique experience in identity development for Korean Adoptees. A presentation will be given on attachment theories and how these theories, combined with the psychological and sociological impacts of LGBTQ identities, racial and cultural identities, and our adoptee identities impact our understanding and functioning of and within various relationships (adoptive family, birth family, romantic, social, etc.). Through a facilitated discussion, participants will engage in dialogue to share experiences, ask questions, and discuss their own understandings and interpretations of relationships as experienced through the complexity in navigating multiple journeys in identity development.

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Organized by Also-Known-As, New York
Description forthcoming

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Description forthcoming

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Presenters: Allen Majors, Tae Yang Jorgensen, Floor Eusterbrook, Robin Herman
Audience: Adoptees only

This session will consist of a facilitated, interactive discussion in which participants will dialogue regarding the extent to which their identity as a transracial adoptee has impacted their relationships. Motives, histories, lessons, and hopes are among the considerations that will be broached toward the goal of deeper understanding to afford healthy, deep, and fulfilling relationships.

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Organized by: Adopterade Koreaners Förening (AKF)
Presenters: Sara Park Lee & Maria Hansson
Audience: All Gathering participants

This is a workshop for adoptees and it will be presented by adoptees who are parents. The workshop is focused on families that have parents who were both adopted or that have one parent who was adopted. How does the experience of losing the biological parents affect the attachment and caring process to the own child? And, how will the Korean heritage affect the child, and also the non-adopted parent (when applicable)?

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