SHIFTING BALANCE SHEETS Women's Stories of Naturalized Citizenship & Cultural Attachment A Wising Up Anthology
Heather Tosteson, Kerry Langan, Charles D. Brockett & Debra Gingerich, Editors
In this anthology, thirty-four women and girls from twenty countries, now living all across the U.S., reflect on their journeys to naturalized U.S. citizenship - journeys that invite all of us, native and foreign born, to consider what it means to choose to be an American.
In Chinese Daughters: All-American Girls, American mothers whose Chinese daughters have become naturalized citizens through adoption, and these insightful teenagers themselves, ponder how their experiences of cross-national adoption with a unique gender imperative influences their sense of personal, cultural, national and global identity.
In Natural Women: Naturalized Citizens, women from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Cuba, England, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Taiwan and Zambia describe their unique journeys to naturalized citizenship as adults - wondering what womanhood, family, love, cultural identification, intellectual curiosity, professional ambition, material need, war, revolution or chance have to do with it. Their stories invite us all to think more generously and intentionally about the invitations and expectations inherent in citizenship - and our shared responsibility to shape, nurture, and celebrate the constantly changing We in We, the People. DISCUSSION GUIDE. 380 pp. ISBN 978-0-9827262-3-5
