Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Brown, Christine



Christine Brown
  Christine Brown is the Siena School for Liberal Arts Deaf Studies Program Coordinator. Brown received her Masters from Gallaudet University in Deaf Studies: Cultural Studies with her thesis, DEAF/QUEER EXPERIENCE AS A MANIFESTATION OF DEAFHOOD. Prior, Brown attended Mount Holyoke College and received her BA in Critical Social Thought. The Siena School Deaf Studies Department provides unique study abroad opportunities fully accessible to Deaf, signing students, and professionals interested in semester or intensive summer programs.


Deaf/Queer as a Manifestation of Deafhood


This paper, “Deaf/Queer as a Manifestation of Deafhood” explores unique processes of becoming inherent in many Deaf/Queer individuals. Such experiences provide a clear model of reflection, exploration, and self-acceptance that can then lead to a foundation of understanding within oneself while engaging possibilities of better understanding experiences of others. By showing and engaging concepts of Deafhood through concrete application, one might better understand oneself—thus have the possibility to then use that foundation and understanding of self, through inner reflection, to then look outwards and better understand others around them.
By engaging what is at the root of deaf or queer—or any experience for that matter, such abstract processes and exploration become strikingly clear, and resonate strongly once expressed through International Sign, because such underlying human truths are universal and can then be applied and contextualized within the diversity and particularities of individual experiences. Processes of becoming allow individuals to arrive at an understanding of him or herself while contextualizing in a manner that is true as an individual, but simultaneously, also uniting through shared processes of becoming.
Though eye-gaze, queer and Deaf individuals from all over the world are able to recognize these processes within other individuals—sometimes within an instant. Thus, the potential for trans-national collaborations becomes that much stronger as a bridge is formed—rooted and reinforced within the core of our beings.
This paper brings one of the most prominent Deaf theories to light in a way that clearly contextualizes the meaning of Deafhood, while touching on profound individual and collective possibilities that naturally present themselves as a result of such processes of becoming.

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