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.
My recent work 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. I'm also one half of the Adopted Feels podcast.
I completed a PhD on Merleau-Ponty's philosophy in 2017 (The University of Melbourne), and am now exploring the world of UX research and design.
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.
