Our Adoption Project: Conversations-Reading the Rulebook + Beyond the Shorthand- Talkaoke with Kriti Khurana
Description
Reading the Rulebook + Beyond the Shorthand- Talkaoke with Kriti Khurana
Kriti is a PhD researcher in Social Work at the University of Kent. Her PhD looks at transracial adoption in England: what it's like to grow up adopted into a family of a different race or ethnicity, and how questions of identity and belonging follow people through their lives. She's exploring this from three angles. She's tracing how government policy on race and adoption has changed over the past thirty years. She's talking with the social workers who make placement decisions. And she's listening to adoptees tell their life stories in their own words.
Beyond the Shorthand is a talk and open conversation about the phrases adoption gets told in, and what sits underneath them.
Reading the Rulebook is a hands-on workshop where you'll read real extracts from adoption law and policy, then black them out, annotate them, rewrite them or write back to them.
No academic background needed. Just come curious!
About Kriti
Kriti started out studying philosophy at Miranda House in Delhi, then did a master's in psychology at Cardiff University. Before her PhD, she worked at CASCADE, a children's social care research centre at Cardiff University, on research into how services in Wales respond to children who are exploited by criminal gangs. Across all of it, she's been drawn to one question: how do the systems meant to care for children shape who they become?
"My doctoral research explores transracial adoption in England through three strands: an analysis of adoption policy, interviews with adoption social workers, and life history interviews with adult adoptees. A thread running through all three is how adoptees' lives get flattened into simplified categories and dominant discourse patterns, in policy, in practice and in public narratives, which felt very close to what your call describes."
About Talkaoke
Talkaoke is a live, television-style talk show format developed by The People Speak art collective from East London. It is a unique way to hear the latest ideas people are talking about and to discover new ones together.
The conversation is a creative medium and a journey from one unexpected subject to another. It can be topical, funny, deep, surreal, or something else. The participants generate the subjects and the host in the middle keeps everybody engaged.
Picture a doughnut-shaped table with a mic in the middle, like a chat show set, except there’s no host telling you what to think and no script deciding what’s “on topic.” Whoever’s holding the mic steers the conversation. People rotate in and out. Strangers end up talking to strangers about things that actually matter to them, face to face, in real time — not through a screen, not through an algorithm deciding what they get to see.
For more information on Talkaoke and The People Speak you can check out their website
Link to our FAQs + Safeguarding statement
FAQs
- Access Information
The building has step-free access from street level throughout the ground floor, and a lift provides access to the second floor. All toilets on site are gender neutral, with a wheelchair-accessible toilet available. Seating is provided throughout the exhibition and event spaces.
More information here: pink-mcr.com/visit-us
Please let the exhibition team know if you have any access requirements and accommodations which can be made within the context of the workshop.
- Getting to the venue
TRAIN
Trains run regularly from Manchester Piccadilly to Stockport Station, the journey takes around 7–10 minutes. From the station, it's a 10-minute walk downhill along Wellington Road South, then onto Lord Street.
BUS
Frequent buses run from Manchester City Centre to Stockport, including the 192 along the A6. Get off at Stockport town centre or Merseyway, a 10-minute walk from the bus interchange.
CAR
Stockport is around 20–30 minutes from central Manchester via the A6. On-site parking at Hilton House is operated by Europarks and is paid parking via mobile or online payment. Additional options including NCP, Europarks, and on-street parking are all within a 5–10 minute walk.
BIKE
Use the TfGM Journey Planner for routes. Bike stands are available outside 63 St Petersgate, SK1 1DH, and secure cycle parking is available at the NCP cycle hub at Stockport train station.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
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