SEMINAR: The Face of Forced Consent in Post-war Adoption Dealings: What Does It Look Like?
- Date: 20 September 2022, 16:15–18:00
- Location: SCAS, Linnéanum, Thunbergssalen, Thunbergsvägen 2, Uppsala
- Type: Seminar
- Lecturer: Gonda Van Steen, Fellow, SCAS. Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature, King’s College London
- Web page
- Organiser: Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS)
- Contact person: Klas Holm
Gonda Van Steen, SCAS and King’s College London, gives a seminar on "The Face of Forced Consent in Post-war Adoption Dealings: What Does It Look Like?". The talk will be followed by a Q&A session.
Abstract
Greece facilitated the migration of some 4,000 of its children for adoption overseas. Between 1950 and 1970, the vast majority of these Greek-born children went to couples in the USA (to some Greek American couples, but also to many more white American couples of any background and religion). Some 600 Greek infants and toddlers were sent to the Netherlands for adoption. Some forty to fifty to Sweden. These three countries were the largest recipients of Greek “orphans,” who are more appropriately called “adopted persons,” because, in many cases, one or both parents were still alive but did not have the means or family support to keep their child. In this presentation I look at the coercive circumstances in which some of these "historic" adoptions took place.
For more information, please see http://www.swedishcollegium.se/subfolders/Events.html.