Researchers

Kristen Cheney is a leading expert on orphanhood and adoption in international development and humanitarian intervention contexts, with a focus on the development of child-friendly and rights-based social policy. She has over 20 years of research experience and policy expertise with and for children, particularly in child protection systems and social service workforce strengthening as well as social welfare and care reform. Her multidisciplinary work takes an explicitly child-centered approach that considers how children experience and respond to the various hegemonic institutional and structural elements of global and local development practices.

Dr. Cheney has been invited to provide expert testimony to the United Nations (UNHCR, UNICEF) and national governments on intercountry adoption and orphan care reform issues, especially the impact of the global ‘orphan industrial complex’—including orphanage tourism and volunteering, childcare institutions, and intercountry adoption—on child protection systems in developing countries.

Email: anthprofkc@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristencheney/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HeAyRiUAAAAJ&hl=en

Cheney, K.E. (2023). “Why The Hague Convention Is Not Enough: Addressing Enabling Environments for Criminality in Intercountry Adoption.” In Nelen, H., Siegel, D. (eds.), Organized Crime in the 21st Century: Motivations, Opportunities, and Constraints. Springer, Cham, 43–60. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369732027_Why_The_Hague_Convention_Is_Not_Enough_Addressing_Enabling_Environments_for_Criminality_in_Intercountry_Adoption

Cheney, K.E. (2021). “Closing New Loopholes: Protecting Children in Uganda’s International Adoption Practices.” Childhood, 28(4), 555–569. Available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09075682211040048

Cheney, K.E., Rotabi, K.S. (2017). “Addicted to Orphans: How the Global Orphan Industrial Complex Jeopardizes Local Child Protection Systems.” In Skelton, T., Harker, C., Hörschelmann, K. (eds.), Conflict, Violence and Peace. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 11. Springer, Singapore, 89–107. Available at https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-4585-98-9_5

Cheney, K.E. (2014). “Executive Summary of the International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy.” ISS Working Paper Series/General Series, 596, 1–40. Available at https://hdl.handle.net/1765/77408

Cheney, K.E. (2014). “‘Giving Children a Better Life?’ Reconsidering Social Reproduction, Humanitarianism and Development in Intercountry Adoption.” The European Journal of Development Research, 26, 247–263. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263325937_’Giving_Children_a_Better_Life’_Reconsidering_Social_Reproduction_Humanitarianism_and_Development_in_Intercountry_Adoption

 

A full list of Dr. Cheney’s publications, also on other topics, can be found here: https://publicationslist.org/kristen.cheney