Women, Gender, and Families of Color, Special Issue, Jennifer F. Hamer, Editor with Guest-Editor Margaret Jacobs, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Webisite)

This special issue of Women, Gender, and Families of Color (WGFC) asks, “What does the child welfare system mean to children and families of color in the U.S.?” The child welfare system has been a site of struggle for families of color since at least the 1970s, when the National Association of Black Social Workers issued a statement against the placement of black children in white foster or adoptive families and Native American activists achieved the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Child welfare authorities supposedly prioritize the welfare of all children and their families, but state care practices have historically impacted groups differently by race, ethnicity, and class. Today children of color are among the almost 700,000 children in foster care, about half of whom experience chronic medical needs and eleven percent of whom age out of the system with no permanent family placement. And African American and Native American children are still disproportionately represented in foster care. This troubling data raises questions about the relationship of the child welfare system to racial/ethnic minority children and families.

WGFC is soliciting manuscripts that explore the historical and contemporary issues, circumstances, policies, practices, and outcomes of child welfare for children and families of color; which includes multiracial/ethnic or transracial/transcultural foster care and adoptive families. Editors are particularly interested in historical, social, and behavioral science approaches to the following broad topics:

• foster care and adoption
• guardianship and kinship
• placements, welfare policies, and permanency
• aging out of state care and outcomes
• transnational comparisons on any of the above
• other topics that fit the general subject matter

Please submit complete manuscripts by June 30, 2013, to WGFC Manuscript Guidelines/Submissions : http://womengenderandfamilies.ku.edu/submit-manuscript/ and send all queries to the editor, Jennifer F. Hamer (JHamer@ku.edu).

WGFC is a multidisciplinary journal published by the University of Illinois Press (www.press.uillinois.edu) that centers the study of Black, Latina/o, Indigenous, and Asian American women, gender, and families. In addition to special and guest-edited issues, WGFC welcomes general submissions on a rolling submissions basis. For more info about WGFC, please visit www.womengenderandfamilies.ku.edu.

—
Dr. Margaret Jacobs
Chancellor’s Professor
Department of History
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
612 Oldfather Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0327
(402) 472-2417
mjacobs3@unl.edu