Gina Miranda Samuels

Gina Miranda Samuels’ scholarly expertise and interests include transracial adoption, mixed race and multiethnic identity formation and the development of young adults whose childhoods are shaped by foster care and adoption. Her scholarship situates these lived experiences in a broader socio-historical, cultural, and theoretical context to critically explore how personal identity and well-being are constrained and promoted by child welfare policy and personal constructions of race and family. Assoc. Prof. Samuels makes use of interpretive methods of research to inform foster care and adoption practice and policy.

Assoc. Prof. Miranda Samuels is currently involved in several research projects being conducted at local and national levels, including a national study of unaccompanied homeless youth-Voices of Youth Count – with colleagues at Chapin Hall. She also serves as a consulting editor for Child Welfare, Children Youth Services Review, Family Process, Marriage and the Family, Family Relations, and Race and Ethnic Studies.