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How Korean adoptees went from being adoptable orphans to deportable immigrants
Since the early 1950s, over 125,000 Korean children have been adopted in the United States, primarily by white families. Yet, many of those adoptees are now vulnerable to deportation. How did adoptable orphans become deportable immigrants? Out of Place examines the process of exceptional belonging that made transnational adoptees desirable yet discardable and how adoptees assert their own belonging outside of these constraints.
Rather than attempt to achieve belonging within the confines of exceptionalism, Out of Place uncovers how adoptees refuse to stay in their place as adoptable orphans or deportable immigrants. Adoptees engage in collective action for citizenship rights, transform the meaning of adoptee beyond expectations of assimilation and gratitude, and create mainstream media that re-presents adoptees as adults. Out of Place challenges the racialized logics undergirding the belief that you must be exceptional to belong.
SunAh Laybourn, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Memphis. She is an Affiliate Faculty Member for the Center for Workplace Diversity & Inclusion, Affiliate Faculty Member in the International and Global Studies Department, and an Academic Research Fellow of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change. She formerly served as co-lead facilitator for the National Civil Rights Museum’s Unpacking Racism for Action program. Her research examines questions of race, identity, and belonging.
Book launch event Q&A
Book Press
Chapter16.org “A Place for Us: SunAh M Laybourn on her new book exploring Korean adoptee identity” by Steve Haruch
New Books Network interview – listen here
Faculti interview (video) – watch here
Adoptees On with Haley Radke podcast interview – Spotify, YouTube
Conversation Piece with Patrick Armstrong interview: