Hello. I'm a writer and researcher living on Wurundjeri land. My essays have appeared in Sydney Review of Books, Liminal Review of Books, Island Magazine, International Journal of Cultural Studies, and others. I hold a PhD (continental philosophy) from the University of Melbourne.
My writing focuses on experiences and histories of Korean transnational, transracial adoption. I'm co-founder of the Korean Adoptee Adoption Research Network (KAARN), ibyangIN, and the Philosophies of Difference group, and one half of the Adopted Feels podcast.
I work as a product designer and D&I project officer.
Contact me at: ryanreadsthings@gmail.com
Recent Projects
Writing
detour, for the Same River Twice exhibition, Emerging Writers Festival 2022.
Footscray Community Arts Centre. Photos: Matto Lucas.
As if the past is an answer | Liminal Review of Books, 2022.
Curious Entanglements | Sydney Review of Books, 2022.
Whole Bodies | Against Disappearance: Essays on Memory, eds. Leah Jing McIntosh and Adolfo Aranjuez. Pantera Press, 2022.
We met each other with different names | Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia, eds. Sam Elkin, Alex Gallagher, Yves Rees & Bobuq Sayed. Allen & Unwin, 2022.
There are no single stories | Bent Street #5.1: soft borders, hard edges, eds. Sam Elkin, Yves Rees, & Tiffany Jones. Clouds of Magellan Press, 2021.
I want to write how you'd tell it | Island Magazine #161, 2021.
Research (selected)
Intercountry adoption and suicide: a scoping review | with Patricia Fronek for the Department of Social Services, Canberra. Available February 2023.
Merleau-Ponty with an Australian Accent | film, with Fiona Utley, Marilyn Stendera, & David Greenhalgh. International Merleau-Ponty Circle x Chiasmi International, 2022.
The Social Exclusion of Child-Rearing Unwed Mothers in South Korea | with Han Boon Young & Yang Min Ok. Springer Handbook of Social Inclusion, 2021.
Theorizing Korean Transracial Adoptee Experiences | International Journal of Cultural Studies 24(2): 309-324. 2021.
Transnational adoption and 'blending in' | The Philosopher's Zone, ABC Radio National, 2021.
Spectral Genealogies | Peril Magazine #41, 2020.
