For further information, please visit my webpage at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln by clicking here. You’ll find info on some of my recent presentations and a list of my publications, and other things that may be of interest.
OVERVIEW OF MY RESEARCH AGENDA
From my perspective as a multicultural educator and critical education researcher, my work is best understood as an investigation of the influence on identities of significant relationships that cross lines of difference. My research explores the development of identities in three discrete but related multicultural contexts:
(1) families formed through transracial adoption and foster care and/or international adoption.
(2) professions (e.g., Education and Social Work) whose interventions profoundly influence family diversity, whether positively or negatively.
(3) communities where individuals from diverse backgrounds form interracial friendships and other significant alliances that transcend lines of difference (e.g., in integrated schools and family support groups and networks).
The potential impact of this research is such that it can provide insight into the ways individuals learn about, and choose to take up (or not), issues of multiculturalism and social justice. I hope it will be obvious to people who are interested in my research how the thread that weaves through it links issues of identity, anti-racist behavior, multicultural awareness, and the importance of interracial contexts that facilitate the development of multicultural identities and lifestyles.
As a scholar who conducts research in the critical tradition, I believe that understanding the sociopolitical contexts in which individuals enact multicultural identities can contribute to the goals of advancing anti-racism and improving social relations across lines of difference, within the contexts of families and professional communities of practice such as Social Work and Education.
