The project New reproductive technologies – perspective of childhood studies aims at researching and describing the situation of children born after in vitro fertilisation, by:
– designing innovative research metodology aimed at research with children
– establishing Interdiciplinary Childchood Research Team within the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Warsaw, which in the future will become an institution dedcicated to research on culturlal aspects of childchood in Poland and use the findings to improve the situation of children in Poland.
We are interested in if and how the children who know their were born after in vitro fertilisation encorporate this fact in their identity, the way their understand kinship and their own place in the family. Project goals:

Analyze if and how children who know that they were born thanks to ARTs incorporate this fact in their identity, the way they understand kinship and their own place in family.

Research project methodology:

– long-established methods of anthropology: in-depth interviews, mostly with the adult participants (parents, other family members, doctors), participant observation (in the fertility clinics and homes of children) – using these tools will result in trascribed interviews and fieldnotes
– innovative participatory metods adjusted to the ability of understanding and expression of the young participants: group discussions, individual art works, workshops in photography, art workshops for the whole families, discusions on family diaries, albums and medical documentation – those methods will be used in work with children and their families and lead to generating data like audio and video recording, art works, photographs which will be archaived and analysed
– media discourse analysis
While applying those methods we will be concerned with the issues of ethics of work with children, the right of children to express themselves in their own terms arising from the Convention of the Rights of the Child, and the consequences of particular abilities to understand the subject, aims and consequences of the research of the young participants.
We are already engaged in cooperation with social partners: fertility clinics, organisations of patients, practitioners and parents, which will provide us with their help at all stages of the project.