Krista Benson is an Associate Professor of Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies (IRIS) at Grand Valley State University as of August 2022. They completed their Ph.D. in 2017 from Ohio State University in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Their current project, Adoption, Foster Care, and Reproductive Justice (advance contract, Routledge) is a co-authored manuscript with Dr. Tanya Saroj Bahkru. In this project, we examine practices of family separation and child removal through adoption and foster care by considering the interlocking effects of racial capitalism, colonialism, empire building, and systemic racism. Reproductive Justice, Adoption, and Foster Care argues that situating the colonial legacies of family separation, what it means to center the right parent, and Reproductive Justice and transnational feminist frameworks in conversation with one another offers a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to recognizing the significance and impact of contemporary examples of family separation. This approach makes evident the connections between adoption and foster care with the intellectual and activist frameworks of human rights, Critical Adoption Studies, Reproductive Justice, and transnational feminisms.
They also have another project, The Kids Who Are(n’t) There: Indigenous Youth, Child Removal, and Juvenile Detention, which examines the ways in which heteropatriarchal gender norms are imposed on Native children through the system of “in state care,” including children educated in compulsory state education, those fostered outside of tribal families, and those with contact with the juvenile justice system. This project is based in the Upper Columbia Basin of Turtle Island, what is currently referred to as Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Southern British Columbia–and is on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Indigenous communities and limited travel.
They have taught, assisted in teaching, and lectured on career readiness, career preparation, feminist spirituality, poststructural/queer theory, sexuality studies, feminist social movements, and feminist theory. Prior to reentering academia, they worked in the non-profit, public service, and higher education areas of eastern Washington for ten years.
Twitter: @klinb
Academia.edu link
The website header is an illustration of Yuri Kochiyama with lyrics from Blue Scholars’ “Yuri Kochiyama.”
Contact
Email
bensokri@gvsu.edu
Mailing
1 Campus Dr.
Allendale, Michigan 49401
Twitter
@klinb
