Intimate encounters, Racial Frontiers: Stateless GI babies in South Korea and the United States, 1953-1965 |
University of Minnesota
June 2010
239 pages
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
This dissertation explores the policy implications of statelessness by examining G.I. babies, born of non-marital sexual relations between U.S. soldiers in South Korea and Korean women between 1953 and 1965. Using English and Korean language documents about adoption and immigration of stateless GI babies, my work shows that statelessness reveals a racially exclusionary vision of national belonging that shaped citizenship policies of both nations. The GI babies’ presence challenged the myth of racial purity and confounded racial categories in both nations. The dissertation seeks to elucidate some limits of Cold War racial liberalism informed by humanitarian concerns for abandoned Korean war orphans but helped maintain racially exclusionary strategies on citizenship conferral that made the children stateless.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1. Ties That Bind: Making of the Origin of Korean Race
- 2. Technologies of Imperial Rule: The Nationality Act of 1940 in the Age of American Expansionism
- 3. Pitied But Not Entitled: Redemptive Adoption and Limits of Cold War Liberalism
- 4. Making of a National Hero: Alchemy of Race, Blood, and Memory
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
Read the entire dissertation here.
Tags: adoption, Bongsoo Park, Korea, South Korea, University of Minnesota