DR. ROSEMARIE PEÑA

Biography

Rosemarie Peña, Ph.D., is a scholar of Black German Studies, transnational adoption, childhood, kinship, and diaspora, and the founder and president of the Black German Heritage & Research Association (BGHRA). A German-born Black adoptee raised in the United States, she brings lived experience into conversation with historical research, cultural analysis, archival recovery, and public humanities.

She founded BGHRA in 2011 after more than a decade of community leadership connecting Black Germans, adoptees, relatives, scholars, and activists across the Atlantic. Her work follows the relationships between childhood displacement and adult life: how people recover family histories, interpret records, reconnect across borders, and build communities of belonging.

Peña earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Childhood Studies and bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and German at Rutgers University–Camden. Her doctoral dissertation, The Rekinning: Portraying Postwar Black German Transnational Adoption, examines representations of adoption in two historical documentary films.

Before entering academia, she worked in social services and adolescent mental health, including supervisory work with young people affected by trauma. That experience, together with her interdisciplinary training and adoptee perspective, informs her attention to care, ethical representation, and the authority of people to interpret their own lives.

Research & Current Projects

The Rekinning

Her current book project explores Black German adoptees’ lives across childhood, migration, family search and reunion, community formation, and archival recovery. It considers how adoptees renew relationships with family, culture, and history after separation, and how those connections reshape understandings of kinship and belonging.

RCTA–TRACE: Adoption, Culture, and Belonging

Peña developed the Racially Coded Transcultural Adoption framework to examine cultural crossings that broad racial categories can obscure. Its companion TRACE lens supports reflection on histories, racialization, records, cultural continuity, and relationships, centering adoptees’ choices and interpretations. This is a conceptual framework rather than a validated clinical assessment. Explore RCTA–TRACE.

Archives, Citizenship & Recognition

Her work connects the recovery of family and community records with questions of citizenship, historical recognition, and redress. Through BGHRA, she helps make research and resources accessible to adoptees, descendants, families, educators, and researchers. Explore BGHRA’s postwar adoption history and recognition and redress resources.

Selected Publications

• “Black Germans: Coming Home to Self and Community.” In Adoption across Race and Nation: US Histories and Legacies, edited by Silke Hackenesch. Ohio State University Press, 2022. Publisher and contents.
• “Stories Matter: Experiences of Black German Adoptees in the U.S.” In Children of the Liberation: Transatlantic Experiences and Perspectives of Black Germans of the Post-War Generation, edited and translated by Marion Kraft. Peter Lang, 2020. Publisher and contents.
• “From Both Sides of the Atlantic: Black German Adoptee Searches in William Gage’s Geborener Deutscher (Born German).” Genealogy 2, no. 4 (2018), article 40. Read the open-access article.
• “Stories Matter: Contextualizing the Black German American Adoptee Experience(s).” In International Adoption in North American Literature and Culture: Transnational, Transracial and Transcultural Narratives, edited by Mark Shackleton, 197–220. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Publisher and chapter listing.
• “Bedeutsame Geschichten: Kontextualisierung der Erfahrung(en) schwarzer deutsch-amerikanischer Adoptierter.” In Kinder der Befreiung: Transatlantische Erfahrungen und Perspektiven Schwarzer Deutscher der Nachkriegsgeneration, edited by Marion Kraft. Unrast, 2015. BGHRA’s introduction to the collection.

Talks, Workshops & Presentations

Peña’s presentations connect Black German history with adoption, kinship, diaspora, archival recovery, and community-engaged teaching. This selection spans invited keynotes, public conversations, university and school visits, and interdisciplinary conferences.

Recent Talks & Workshops

• 2026 · Beyond Europe’s Borders: Diaspora, Archives, and the Future of Black European Studies
  Facilitator, closed intellectual workshop, Afropean: Black People and Blackness in Europe, University of Wisconsin–Madison, October.
• 2026 · Rekinning, Reculturation and the Archive
  Workshop 5, “Adoption, (Re-)Kinning the Politics of Family in American Studies,” Kinship in American Studies, 72nd annual meeting of the German Association for American Studies, University of Münster, Germany, May 29.
• 2025 · Re-Kinning and Building a Transnational Black Community
  The Legacies of Mixed-Race Children Born of War: Kinship, Belonging and Transnational Adoption after World War II, Deutsches Haus at New York University, November 6.
• 2025 · Adoption and Re-Kinning
  Public conversation with filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem, moderated by Silke Hackenesch, with a screening of Geographies of Kinship, Deutsches Haus at NYU, November 6. Filmmaker’s event announcement.
• 2024 · Rekinning & Reculturation: Transcultural Adoption and the Black Diaspora
  “From War to Adoption: Transnational Journeys,” Korean Adoption and Its Global Legacies: 70 Years and Beyond, Northwestern University, April 13. Presented virtually. Conference program.
• 2022 · Collaboration, Transparency, Accessibility: How to Radically Rethink the Classroom and Our Roles within It
  Workshop with Dr. Emily Frazier-Rath, Anderson Language and Technology Center (ALTEC), University of Colorado Boulder, March 14. Workshop description and recording.

Selected Keynotes

• 2020 · Scholarly Activism: The Black German Heritage and Research Association (BGHRA) and Black German Studies in the United States
  Keynote, Women in German Studies UK and Ireland conference, November. Virtual.
• 2019 · Black Germans in America
  Keynote, Max Kade German-American Research and Resource Center, IUPUI School of Liberal Arts, Indianapolis, November.
• 2019 · Black Germans: Postwar Adoption History
  Keynote, Departments of English and Cultural Studies, New Jersey City University, January.
• 2015 · Stories Matter: Contextualizing the Black German American Adoptee Experience(s)
  Keynote, Georgiana Simpson Society for German Diaspora Studies symposium, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, April.
• 2013 · Staatenlos: Connecting Within the Margins
  Keynote, Collegium for African American Research (CAAR) convention, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, March.

Invited Lectures & Public Education

• 2021 · Stories Matter: Contextualizing the Black German American Adoptee Experience(s)
  Invited lecture, Department of German, Nordic, Slavic, & Dutch, University of Minnesota, April. Virtual.
• 2021 · Black German Adoption
  Invited talk, Williamstown Middle School, New Jersey, February. Virtual.
• 2020 · Black German Adoption
  Invited lectures at the University of Cincinnati (October), Kalamazoo College (June), and College of Charleston (March). Virtual.
• 2017 · Stories Matter: Contextualizing the Black German American Adoptee Experience(s)
  Invited lecture, University of Kassel, Germany, November.
• 2015 · Homestory Deutschland: Black Biographies in Historical and in Present Times
  Invited introductory speaker at the exhibition launch, Howard University, Washington, DC, February.
• 2013 · Black, German, American and Adopted: The Children of the Post-WWII Occupation
  Guest lecture, Department of English and American Studies, University of Wuppertal, Germany, May.
• 2011 · The History & Presence of Black People in Germany
  German Studies Department, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, November.

Conference Papers & Roundtables

• 2021 · Transcultural Reunification in the Context of Postwar Black German Transnational Adoption
  Crossing Thresholds, Women in German Studies conference, University of Aberdeen, June 25. Online.
• 2021 · The Black German Heritage & Research Association and Institute
  Coalition of Women in German conference, November. Virtual.
• 2021 · Unsere Welt
  “Globalization & Visualization” panel, In Search of the Migrant Child: ‘Extra’-Ordinary Sources of Child Migrants’ Past Lives, May 18–19. Digital workshop organized by the Hannah Arendt Institute, German Historical Institute, and University of Minnesota.
• 2019 · Whose German Studies? Diversity and Inclusivity in Promoting German Studies
  Roundtable, Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum (DDGC) conference, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, March. Peña met Dr. Emily Frazier-Rath at this conference; their subsequent collaboration helped develop BGHRA’s educational work at Davidson College.
• 2019 · The Victors’ Kids Return: A Mannheim Story
  German Studies Association conference, Portland, Oregon, October. Paper presented in absentia.
• 2019 · Black Germans: Coming Home to Self and Community
  Contested Kinship: Towards a Redefinition of Human Relations, University of Göttingen, Germany, March. Paper presented in absentia.
• 2018 · St. Josef Kinderheim (Children’s Home): Afro-German Adoptees Return
  Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture conference, Oakland, California (October), and German Studies Association conference, Pittsburgh (September).
• 2018 · Black Germans: Reunification & Belonging in Diaspora
  Modern Language Association convention, New York City, January 6. ASAC program listing.
• 2017 · Black Germans: Reunification & Belonging in Diaspora
  Designing Modern Families: International Perspectives on Intercountry and Transracial Adoptions, University of Kassel, Germany, November.
• 2017 · Authorial Stakes in Documentary Testimonial: The Postwar Adoption of Black Germans Revisited
  German Studies Association conference, Atlanta (October), and Society for the History of Childhood and Youth conference, Camden, New Jersey (June).
• 2016 · (Re)Presenting Black Germans in Documentary Film
  Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture conference, Minneapolis, October.
• 2016 · Beyond Black Europe
  Roundtable sponsored by the Black Diaspora Studies Network, German Studies Association conference, San Diego, September.
• 2016 · Imag(in)ing: Black, German, American, and Adopted
  Celebration of Graduate Research and Creative Activities, Rutgers University–Camden, April.
• 2016 · Stories Matter: Contextualizing the Black German American Adoptee Experience(s)
  American Adoption Congress conference, Denver, March.
• 2014 · Black, German, American and Adopted: The Children of the Post-WWII Occupation
  Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture conference, Florida State University, Tallahassee, March.
• 2012 · Afrogerman Youth Identity Development
  College Language Association convention, Atlanta, and Center for Race & Ethnicity Graduate Forum, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, February.
• 2010 · The Question of Hanna’s Guilt in Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader
  Poster and paper, Rutgers Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creativity, Rutgers University–Camden, April.

Film Conversations

• 2020 · Black Lives in Germany: Film + Talk
  Moderator of a conversation with filmmaker Sheri Hagen about At Second Glance, DEFA Film Library, UMass Amherst, November 5. Event details and recording link.

BGHRA Leadership & Public Scholarship

Peña’s leadership brings scholars, artists, educators, adoptees, families, and community partners into sustained conversation. Through international conferences, film discussions, workshops, educational collaborations, and digital resources, BGHRA preserves Black German histories while supporting new research and connections across generations.

At Rutgers University–Camden, BGHRA is based in Africana Studies and is developing A Special Collection on Black German and Adoption Studies at the Paul Robeson Library. The collection and BGHRA’s audiovisual archive support teaching, research, and the preservation of community knowledge.

Her collaboration with Dr. Emily Frazier-Rath and Davidson College connects students with Black German art, resistance, and community-based research. Explore BGHRA at Davidson and the Black German Art & Resistance syllabus (PDF).

Explore BGHRA conferences, the 2027 conference and Special Collection launch, and the BGHRA Digital Archive.

Interviews & News Features

Rutgers University

• Rutgers Student, a German ‘Brown Baby,’ Helps Others Search for Their Identities (opens in a new tab)
  By Carrie Stetler, Rutgers University, May 8, 2012. A feature on Peña’s return to university, research into Black German adoption, and work connecting people with shared histories.
• Call and Response: Rosemarie Peña in conversation with Patrick Rosal (opens in a new tab)
  Recorded conversation, Poets and Scholars Summer Writing Retreat, Rutgers Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, July 22, 2021. Rutgers program and recording (opens in a new tab).

The Philadelphia Inquirer

• Discovering the life of Afro-Germans (opens in a new tab)
  By Edward Colimore, The Philadelphia Inquirer, June 5, 2012. A profile of Peña’s search for her history and her work building transatlantic community and scholarly connections.

The 2012 features are historical reporting. Some biographical details reflect information available at the time, before later family research clarified Peña’s paternal history.