Barbara Sumner

The Illegitimate Other: adoptology and the manufacture of identity. A study of the structures, functions, and purpose of human adoption in society.

PhD awarded 2025

Barbara Sumner at the IIML. (Photo supplied.)

"The Illegitimate Other: Adoption and the Manufacture of Identity" is a hybrid thesis blending creative writing and critical research. Through a series of essays, it examines the complexities, fallacious ideologies, and systemic forces shaping the lives of people living on the adoption spectrum.

Barbara, author of Tree of Strangers (Massey University Press), explores forced stranger adoption in her investigative memoir. An advocate for adoptee rights, she works to establish birth identity as a fundamental right and position New Zealand in the global movement for adoptee equality. She coined 'adoptology' to define the study of adoption's structures and functions.

A multi-award-winning, Oscar-shortlisted documentary filmmaker and former magazine features writer, Barbara is also a wife, mother, and grandmother. In 2024, she was a Michael King Writers Centre Resident, and in May 2024, Pantera Press published her historical novel, The Gallows Bird.

Starting early March 2025, Adoptology, a forum at the intersection of human adoption and society can be found on substack.

Read more:

Tree of Strangers (Massey University Press)

The Gallows Bird (Pantera Press)