In an example of collaboration between academics and practitioners, Carmen Monico worked with her former dissertation chair, Karen Smith Rotabi, now in the United Arab Emirates University, Kelley McCreery Bunkers, a child protection consultant, and Lucy Armistead, an adoption agency director, in the production of two book chapters summarizing the social literature of intercountry adoption globally, and the U.S. intercountry adoption experience from post-disaster Haiti.
Intercountry adoption is one of the most fascinating topics of research given its long, controvertial history, involving a variety of inter- and cross-cultural issues that are of concern to many disciplines, including law, medicine and health care professions, human services, religion, and other social sciences, such as anthropology, sociology, and history. A multiplicty of actors from around the world are involved in intercountry adoption. They include: the “triad” (adopted children or eligible for adoption, biological parents, adoptive parents or prospective), policy makers and adoption service providers (from countries of origin and adoption), and a wide range of other agents who may be legally or illegally involved in the adoption process.
This topic captured international attention during the World World II, and particularly with the expansion of globalized, and increasignly commercialized forms of building a family. As the daughter of an adoptee, Human Service Studies faculty Carmen Monico, focused her dissertation on this topic when studying at the Virginia Commonwealth University. From her extensive literature review and careful study of contemporary intercountry adoption cases, she is contributing sustantially to more informed debates that take account of multiple perspectives, and yet promote evidence-based practice by all stakeholders involved.
The two book chapters to which Monico worked collaborately with other faculty and child welfare practitioners are titled (1) At this Critical Juncture in the Era of Reform: Reviewing 35 Years of Social Work Literature on Intercountry Adoption (Rotabi, Monico, Bunkers, 2015), and (2) Sanctioned Government Intervention, “Misguided Kindness,” and Child Abduction Activities of U.S. Citizens in the Midst of Disaster: Haiti’s Past and its Future as a Nation Subscribed to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (Rotabi, Armistead, and Monico, 2015) — In Ballard, R. L., Goodno, N. H., Cochran, Jr., R. F, & Milbrandt, J. A. (Eds.). (2015). The Intercountry Adoption Debate: Dialogues Across Disciplines. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
For more on this publication and a extract from this book that will be soon available at the Belk Library, please visit: http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-intercountry-adoption-debate