“I may not be able to find my family but it always made me feel a step closer to help others.” OUTSIDERS WITHIN is a landmark publication that explores transracial adoption and the heavy emotional and cultural toll on those who directly experience it. The volume has many contributors who explore transracial adoption through essays, fiction, poetry, and art. OUTSIDERS WITHIN is coedited by Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chinyere Oparah, and Sun Yung Shin. This episode features Trenka in conversation with Ami Nafzger.

Jane Jeong Trenka was adopted from South Korea to Minnesota. She holds a master of public administration from Seoul National University and was instrumental in revising Korea’s adoption law in 2011. She is author of THE LANGUAGE OF BLOOD and FUGITIVE VISIONS and coauthor of CHILD-SELLING COUNTRY (in Korean) with Kihye Jeon Hong and Kyung-eun Lee. She lives in Korea.

Ami Inja Nafzger (aka Jin Inja) was adopted from Cheonju, South Korea, at the age of four and grew up in Wisconsin. She attended Augsburg College in Minnesota, graduating in social work, sociology, and Native American Indian studies. She founded Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link (GOA’L) in 1997. Nafzger is founder, president, and CEO of Adoptee Hub and works for the Department of Human Services (DHS) State of Minnesota as a Planning Director in the Business Integration Division for Children and Family Services.

LINKS:
Outsiders Within: z.umn.edu/outsiderswithin
Adoptee Hub: https://www.adopteehub.org/
G.O.A’.L.: Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link: https://goal.or.kr/

Outsiders Within: Korean adoptees Jane Jeong Trenka and Ami Nafzger share their stories.

Red Gold: The Managed Extinction of the Giant Bluefin Tuna is a book that asks why so many big bluefin tuna have vanished from the Atlantic Ocean. Author Jen Telesca notes that the term “red gold” has emerged out of the exorbitant price her ruby-colored flesh commands on the global market; for reference, in January 2019, a 613-pound Pacific bluefin tuna sold at market in Tokyo for an astounding record of $3.1 million US dollars. To research this book, Telesca gained unparalleled access to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (also known as ICCAT) to show that the institution has faithfully executed the task assigned to it by international law: to fish as hard as possible to grow national economies. This interview between Telesca and editor Jason Weidemann was recorded in May 2020.

More about the book: http://z.umn.edu/redgold

A transcription of this conversation is available: z.umn.edu/t-redgold

Outsiders Within: Korean adoptees Jane Jeong Trenka and Ami Nafzger share their stories.

University of Minnesota Press

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