Positions as a Korean American Adoption Ethnograper

In 2003, I began conducting oral histories interviews with adult Korean American adoptees. I chose oral history narrative as a way to understand meaning in the everyday details, the social and political beliefs and the behaviors of this vibrant community. The oral histories that became central to my research are meaningful in political, social and intimate spheres, as lived experiences of adoptees in the many overlapping Korean adoptee communities in the United States and around the world. Throughout the ethnographic process that built this research, I have made adjustments as my position relative to my own work and to the adoptee community of which I am a part has changed. A key concept in interpreting these shifting sands of positionality is my location as either (and sometimes neither) an insider or an outsider in the community and world of Korean American adoption. This is especially true in communities of Korean adoptees, within which I have access to so-called ―native informants,?complicated by the possibility of my own position as a native informant. This presentation focuses on the oral history and ethnographic methods I use in my research of Korean American adoptees, including the ethical and research implications of my research choices.