The University of Texas Permian Basin is celebrating one of its professors marking a milestone with his first published book. Ronald Spickermann has been with UTPB for 24 years. He is an Associate Professor of History and is the Head of the Humanities Program.
Spickermann wrote “Child, Family, State,” which explores the evolution of adoption in Germany. As a proud adoptive father of two daughters and a son of German immigrants, he searched for existing research on adoption in Germany. Finding very little, he did the research and wrote the book himself.
“Mostly I hope I’ve written something useful to others to use the German example to understand ourselves better,” Spickermann said.
The book takes a deep dive into how adoption changed as Germany’s government assumed a new role as guardian of children. It explains how the government evaluated prospective adoptive parents for suitability and how family-child relationships were shaped under multiple regimes, each with its own vision.
Spickermann’s journey to becoming a historian began in high school, when he became interested in how people worked and whether there were patterns to it all. Spickermann says the topic he landed on was fitting.
“My parents are German immigrants; I grew up speaking German. It was a natural thing to end up teaching and writing about German history,” Spickermann said.
He’s not stopping with German adoption. Spickermann’s next project will explore international adoption history.
“There’s always more to learn.”
His book can be found on Amazon.
