Zeina Allouche
An advocate for social justice and children’s rights and an oral history/autoethnography storyteller and performer, I have worked for more than 20 years in the field of child protection, especially with children forced to separate from their families. I have contributed to international initiatives to promote family strengthening aiming at preventing separation, participated in the drafting of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care for Children (2009), and co-established Badael-Alternatives ( http://badael-alternatives.org/), an NGO based in Lebanon to advocate for the rights to origins for the survivors who were illegally adopted out during the wartime.
I was appointed as a public scholar (2019-2020), at Concordia University. In 2021, I completed my Individualized Ph.D. in Arts and Social Science, at Concordia University. My oral history performance was grounded in Indigenous methodologies and was based on the life stories of individuals who have experienced transracial or intercountry adoption through a collaborative research-creation using headphones verbatim.
I have assumed leadership positions within many international organizations. I also served as a national director of an organization that specialized in alternative care and assumed leadership roles with UNICEF in Lebanon and Yemen.
I have more than 7 years of experience in university teaching that is grounded in decolonized approaches to learning. I also contributed to many publications advocating for child protection with a special focus on Gender-Based Violence, transracial/international adoption, and the rights of children without parental care.
I was appointed as a public scholar (2019-2020), at Concordia University. In 2021, I completed my Individualized Ph.D. in Arts and Social Science, at Concordia University. My oral history performance was grounded in Indigenous methodologies and was based on the life stories of individuals who have experienced transracial or intercountry adoption through a collaborative research-creation using headphones verbatim.
I have assumed leadership positions within many international organizations. I also served as a national director of an organization that specialized in alternative care and assumed leadership roles with UNICEF in Lebanon and Yemen.
I have more than 7 years of experience in university teaching that is grounded in decolonized approaches to learning. I also contributed to many publications advocating for child protection with a special focus on Gender-Based Violence, transracial/international adoption, and the rights of children without parental care.
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Papers by Zeina Allouche
and the Risks of Adoption
On July 19, 2018, the Directorate General of Internal Security Forces announced that the Information Division had apprehended members of a human
trafficking ring operating between Lebanon and Syria accompanied by 130 persons (alraaiionline, 2018). This is run-of-the-mill news, as the illegal crossborder traffic between Lebanon and Syria is old news, just as with any other two neighboring states. Undoubtedly, this movement has intensified as a
result of the ongoing war in Syria and the new conditions set to control the movement of refugees from Syria into Lebanon. In such circumstances, it is
also foreseeable that gangs that facilitate illegal cross-border movement will proliferate, at times through bribes and at others by securing hidden
rugged passages in a mountainous terrain.
Thesis Chapters by Zeina Allouche
“ineradicable voices; narratives toward rerooting1”; An oral history researchcreation based on the life stories of individuals who experienced transracial/intercountry
adoption
Zeina Ismail-Allouche, PHD
Concordia University, 2021
This collaborative oral history research-creation, grounded in Indigenous methodologies
(Kovach, 2009; 2010; Smith, 1999; Wilson, 2008), amplifies the critical narrative of
transracial/intercountry adoption through the life stories of individuals who experienced
transracial/intercountry adoption (adoptees), regardless of their places of origin and adoption. An
Advisory committee of adoptees guided the research and 22 collaborators (including the
Advisory committee) worked together to ensure a co-authored representation of these longsilenced voices. The creative outcome was a Zoom oral history headphone verbatim
performance.
The online public event (available at this link: https://storytelling.concordia.ca/projectsitem/ineradicable-voices-narrations-toward-rerooting/) revealed complex, intimate, intense and
unique pathways with intersections of colonial systems, identity formation, and enduring racism.
Search for origins was perceived as necessary for the healing process and Indigenous custom
adoption was identified as the best community-based practice in parallel with investing in
preventing separation and breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
The research-creation is timely amidst the tragic discovery of the remains of more than
1000 children buried at different sites of the colonial residential school following the 15 May
2021 release of the Laurent Commission final report on Children's Rights and Youth Protection
1
The title was meant to be written in small characters using Helvetica as a font to reflect on the adoption
documents that were most of the time falsified and written with a typewriter
iv
calling for reform of the youth protection system in Quebec. Internationally, the implications of
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is expected to expose more children to the risk of falling into
transracial/intercountry adoption; some 150 million people across the globe will be pushed into
poverty by 2021 due to the global recession and the closure of many firms because of the
lockdown (World Bank, 2021). Lebanon is of particular concern because of the country's
unprecedented economic and political crises. History has proven that transracial/intercountry
adoption was practiced as a rescue intervention despite the fact that it has been critically revisited
in many writings highlighting its long-term and irreversible psychological challenges
(Blackstock, 2011; Brodzinsky, 1993; Cantwell, 2014).
The thesis is a complementary document to the public event. It presents the theoretical
framework of the research-creation. The thesis includes my connections to the research subject, a
historical perspective on adoption practices and the colonial legacies of forced separation of
Indigenous children in Canada, the research methodologies, the impact on audience, my
learnings about the methodologies, an analysis of findings and proposed recommendations.
Books by Zeina Allouche
The policy is meant to support media in its endeavor to serve the public interest while prioritizing the best interests of children and protecting them from any possible harm associated with unsafe public exposure, especially for boys and girls who have experienced severe violations such as maltreatment and sexual abuse.
and the Risks of Adoption
On July 19, 2018, the Directorate General of Internal Security Forces announced that the Information Division had apprehended members of a human
trafficking ring operating between Lebanon and Syria accompanied by 130 persons (alraaiionline, 2018). This is run-of-the-mill news, as the illegal crossborder traffic between Lebanon and Syria is old news, just as with any other two neighboring states. Undoubtedly, this movement has intensified as a
result of the ongoing war in Syria and the new conditions set to control the movement of refugees from Syria into Lebanon. In such circumstances, it is
also foreseeable that gangs that facilitate illegal cross-border movement will proliferate, at times through bribes and at others by securing hidden
rugged passages in a mountainous terrain.
“ineradicable voices; narratives toward rerooting1”; An oral history researchcreation based on the life stories of individuals who experienced transracial/intercountry
adoption
Zeina Ismail-Allouche, PHD
Concordia University, 2021
This collaborative oral history research-creation, grounded in Indigenous methodologies
(Kovach, 2009; 2010; Smith, 1999; Wilson, 2008), amplifies the critical narrative of
transracial/intercountry adoption through the life stories of individuals who experienced
transracial/intercountry adoption (adoptees), regardless of their places of origin and adoption. An
Advisory committee of adoptees guided the research and 22 collaborators (including the
Advisory committee) worked together to ensure a co-authored representation of these longsilenced voices. The creative outcome was a Zoom oral history headphone verbatim
performance.
The online public event (available at this link: https://storytelling.concordia.ca/projectsitem/ineradicable-voices-narrations-toward-rerooting/) revealed complex, intimate, intense and
unique pathways with intersections of colonial systems, identity formation, and enduring racism.
Search for origins was perceived as necessary for the healing process and Indigenous custom
adoption was identified as the best community-based practice in parallel with investing in
preventing separation and breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
The research-creation is timely amidst the tragic discovery of the remains of more than
1000 children buried at different sites of the colonial residential school following the 15 May
2021 release of the Laurent Commission final report on Children's Rights and Youth Protection
1
The title was meant to be written in small characters using Helvetica as a font to reflect on the adoption
documents that were most of the time falsified and written with a typewriter
iv
calling for reform of the youth protection system in Quebec. Internationally, the implications of
the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is expected to expose more children to the risk of falling into
transracial/intercountry adoption; some 150 million people across the globe will be pushed into
poverty by 2021 due to the global recession and the closure of many firms because of the
lockdown (World Bank, 2021). Lebanon is of particular concern because of the country's
unprecedented economic and political crises. History has proven that transracial/intercountry
adoption was practiced as a rescue intervention despite the fact that it has been critically revisited
in many writings highlighting its long-term and irreversible psychological challenges
(Blackstock, 2011; Brodzinsky, 1993; Cantwell, 2014).
The thesis is a complementary document to the public event. It presents the theoretical
framework of the research-creation. The thesis includes my connections to the research subject, a
historical perspective on adoption practices and the colonial legacies of forced separation of
Indigenous children in Canada, the research methodologies, the impact on audience, my
learnings about the methodologies, an analysis of findings and proposed recommendations.
The policy is meant to support media in its endeavor to serve the public interest while prioritizing the best interests of children and protecting them from any possible harm associated with unsafe public exposure, especially for boys and girls who have experienced severe violations such as maltreatment and sexual abuse.