Introduction

The conference is to be held in the English medieval city of Norwich, in the beautiful, rural surroundings of the UK’s East Anglian region. The conference builds on the success of the first International Conference on Adoption Research (ICAR) hosted by The University of Minnesota in 1999.

The goal of the conference is to bring together the worldwide, multidisciplinary community of distinguished and emerging adoption researchers, to enable sharing of research findings and to encourage interaction and debate about the future research agenda. Conference participants will be drawn from a wide range of disciplines such as psychology, psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, social work, history, social policy and law. The number of conference attendees will be limited to 120, to maximise interaction and retain focus and preference will be given to those undertaking adoption research.

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Conference topics

The conference aims to draw together the most important messages from research about adoption as a psycho-social phenomenon. Debate will be encouraged about methodological and conceptual challenges and the future direction that research into adoption should take.
The primary topic areas will include (but not be restricted to):

• developmental outcomes for adopted children (in infant, special needs and international adoptions)
• openness in adoption
• historical and cross-cultural similarities and differences in adoption practice
• alternatives to adoption: permanent foster care, concurrent planning
• nature and nurture: the impact of genes and environment on adopted children’s development
• the needs of birth relatives
• searching and reunion
• adoptive parent recruitment; infertility, loss and adoption
• children with specialist needs e.g. minority ethnicity, disabled children

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Format

The conference will begin with registration on Monday afternoon, followed by an opening keynote talk and supper in Norwich’s Medieval cathedral. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday there will be presentations from keynote speakers followed by a chaired discussion session in the mornings. The afternoons will be a mixture of papers, symposia, workshops and posters: all conference participants are strongly encouraged to share information about their research in one format or another. The call for abstracts for papers, workshops, posters and symposia will be in September 2005.

For details of the programme as it becomes available click here.

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Why come to ICAR2?

A number of features make this conference an exciting and unique opportunity

• The whole meeting is devoted entirely to adoption research.
• It is multidisciplinary and multinational with scholars from around the world and from all relevant disciplines.
• All participants attend the entire meeting and actively participate in the conference by presenting a paper or poster.
• Keynote sessions are followed by a chaired discussion time, to facilitate debate and interaction.
• Informal time is provided for poster presentations, refreshments, and conversation.
• A social programme allows participants informal opportunities to interact, and offers a flavour of the local Norfolk environment.
• All participants attend a conference-sponsored banquet.
• The conference is being held on a beautiful parkland campus close to the medieval city of Norwich and the famous North Norfolk coast and Norfolk broads.
• Conference activities are located within a five minute walk of the hotel-grade accommodation with access to a variety of shops, sports and other activities on campus.

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Centre for Research on the Child & Family, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
Tel: 01603 592068 Fax: 01603 593552

Copyright 2005 University of East Anglia