Refereed Proceedings of Doing Psychology: Manawatu Doctoral Research Symposium 2011

Permanent URI for this collection

https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/3223
Welcome to the refereed proceedings of the inaugural Doing Psychology: Manawatu Doctoral Research Symposium 2011. The symposium, held in the School of Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu Campus on December 7, showcased the diverse range of doctoral research undertaken at the Manawatu Campus. Papers were submitted by authors who were at various stages of their research. The symposium was a doctoral student initiative in that the proceedings were organised, edited and peer reviewed by doctoral candidates, graduands and recent graduates. We were also fortunate to have international reviewers from Canada and Norway. The symposium was a chance for candidates to disseminate and discuss their research in a supportive environment. It was also an opportunity to both present and publish a concise paper in an online edited book of proceedings. Candidates gained experience in writing and structuring a concise paper to a set format for publication and participating through blind peer review. The symposium was opened by Associate Professor Mandy Morgan, the Head of School. There were eight paper presentations covering a wide range of topics and methodologies as well as great discussion by staff and students. We thank everyone who supported the symposium and made it such a memorable and enjoyable event. We look forward to seeing many of you again at the next symposium in 2012.

Browse

Browsing Refereed Proceedings of Doing Psychology: Manawatu Doctoral Research Symposium 2011 by Author "Blake, Denise"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    ‘Wade in the Water …': Rethinking adoptees' stories of reunion
    (Massey University, 2011) Blake, Denise; Coombes, Leigh; Morgan, Mandy
    In 1955, the Aotearoa/New Zealand government legislated the closed stranger adoption period. Approximately 80,000 children were constructed as a legal fiction when deemed as if born to a legally married couple. Birth family information was permanently sealed. Yet being raised in a fictional subject position and being denied access to any family of origin has consequences for all involved. After ten years of lobbying, the Adult Adoption Information Act (1985) came into effect. The power of that legislation was to overturn the strategies that suppressed adoptees’ rights to know details of their birth. Adult adoptees over the age of 20 years could access their original birth certificates, which provided a birth mother’s name. With this identifying information, reunions became possible. Birth family reunions involve a diverse range of experiences, reflecting the ways in which adoptees are contextually and historically produced. This paper reconsiders the identity implications of reunion stories using the theoretical concept of hybrid identity. The complexities of reunions are multiple, and adoptees negotiate their identities through being both born to and born as if and yet neither identity is safe. In the production of this hybrid story, it was possible to see the political and moral trajectories that enable and constrain a sense of self through the complexities of a legal context that produces binary subject positions.
Copyright Statement: © Copyright 2011. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 New Zealand License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/nz/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.