the Deaf studies incubator
Projects
2025 - 2026 Cohort
Chisom Ofomata
My projects reflect my interest in understanding how disability, deafness, and diverse identities shape people’s experiences with healthcare. I am receiving valuable mentorship as I prepare my undergraduate senior thesis for publication. My senior thesis for my major in the History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health focused on the maternity experiences of Black deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) women from 1980 to 2010. I pursued this topic because I identified a dearth of research in this field. Through interviews and archival research, I was able to provide insight into how Black DHH maternity health experiences have evolved. Through dissemination, I want my thesis to serve as a call-to-action, emphasizing the importance of uplifting this overlooked demographic through research that can help ensure an equitable standard of care.
I am also collaborating with the Center of Deaf Health Excellence on a storytelling documentary regarding deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing (DDBHH) women’s experiences with breast and cervical cancer screening. The goal of this project is to share community members’ experiences and understand how the provision of resources, such as Community Health Navigators, can transform patient experiences and health behaviors. This collaboration has been an opportunity to gain expertise in the art of storytelling and the potential it harbors in improving health equity for marginalized communities.
My goal for both projects is to shed light on untold stories and help publicize them in the hopes of inspiring progress in medicine and beyond.
Andhrea Tagle Readi
Why do labor markets experience constant rearrangements, but occupational segregation processes stay more or less the same? How are countless organizational decisions made within those segregated labor markets? How can organizations question the norm and meaningfully integrate people with disabilities in this restructuring process? These are some of the questions that set the stage for my project, which initiates a theoretical inquiry into direct and indirect organizational decision making processes that fundamentally shape the career paths of workers with disabilities. While bridging concepts from organizational theory (racialized organizations) and critical disability studies (compulsory able-bodiedness), this project specifically explores the formation of occupational segregation processes and deconstructs the normalized organizational decisions that emerge from those processes.
To test a part of this theoretical inquiry, my project also investigates how deaf Latine workers construe organizational decisions and relational status changes. Through the use of survey and interview methods, participants share their experiences navigating normalized organizational demands and spaces. In addition to that, participants describe the ways in which those demands and spaces converge and diverge from their own expectations and pick some still frames that mark their particular career progressions and turns.
Sophia Williams
My project investigates how deaf individuals living with chronic and invisible illnesses use sign language as an embodied mode of storytelling and knowledge-making. Using ethnographic methods—including participatory workshops such as zine-making and body mapping—I explore how deaf signers represent, negotiate, and share experiences of illness and disability within their communities. This research centers on how sign language, as a visual-tactile and corporeal language, becomes a critical site for articulating health experiences that are often marginalized or misunderstood within dominant biomedical institutions.
The project engages theoretical frameworks from phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty), habitus (Bourdieu), and biopower (Foucault) to examine how deaf individuals navigate and contest medical systems that privilege speech and objectivity. Sign language blurs the boundary between saying and showing, offering an epistemology rooted in lived and relational experience. Through this lens, I conceptualize the emergence of a “collective body,” a shared network of care and meaning in which individual sensory and bodily differences contribute to a living archive of community resilience.
Mary Caroline Yuk
My project focuses on the experiences of students with cochlear implants at Gallaudet University. A cochlear implant is a neuroprosthetic device for profoundly deaf people that produces a sensation of hearing through direct electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve via surgically implanted electrode arrays, paired with externally worn sound processors. Historically, the cochlear implant has been viewed as a tool of normalizing hearing and speech, generating controversy in American Deaf communities as habilitation approaches often discouraged sign language. Over time, this has produced a narrow conception of what it means to be successful with a CI, while overlooking the heterogeneous ways these devices can create new forms of communication and sensing in the world.
I am interested in how students at Gallaudet with cochlear implants use their devices, what it means to them, and how this has changed across contexts and over time. I’m also interested in how this shifts across signing-centered environments like Gallaudet versus elsewhere. This project will be conducted in three phases. First, I will be interviewing students to establish biographical context and relationship to the CI. Then I will ask them to participate in a week-long, participant-led documentation period where they track their CI use across settings, and then we will meet up again to go through their documentation, as they narrate their own CI usage practices. In paying attention to the distinctive, perceptual processes of students with CIs at Gallaudet, this study aims to understand what participants themselves make of their sensory experiences, ultimately contributing to a more capacious understanding of deafnesses.
2024 - 2025 Cohort
Naiara Larrakoetxea
Naiara Larrakoetxea, Bachelor in Political Science, Specialist in Basque Studies and Master in Governance and Political Studies, is currently a researcher at the UPV-EHU, where she is doing her PhD in Society, Politics and Culture program, analyzing the deaf community from a political science perspective. Being Basque ignited her interest in understanding the complexities of political conflicts and their profound impact on relationships and social structures. These experiences ingrained in her a deep appreciation for democratic values and the importance of fostering dialogue across differences. Her commitment to politics has led her to hold different political positions in deaf associations in Spain and Basque Country for a decade, especially those related to Spanish Sign Language policy.
Building on a decade of experience in regional and national positions focused on language rights, I have engineered a research focusing on Deaf political agenda and the mechanisms by which these demands are articulated within different sociopolitical contexts. This ongoing work has solidified my commitment to understanding the processes and structures that shape the political culture of Deaf individuals and develops our political ecosystem.
Looking forward, my primary goal remains to contribute to the understanding of Deaf political culture through interdisciplinary lens. I aim to explore the dynamics of empowerment and collective emancipation within Deaf communities, with particular focus on how and why democratic participation shapes our agency. The research seeks to bridge the macropolitical structures that shape societal frameworks with the micropolitical dynamics of Deaf communities and mutual influences. This includes examining how participation and discourse are assimilated when expressed through different languages and from the perspective of sociolinguistic minorities like deaf ones. Through the visual research technique “mapping,” I try to approach and understand the reality and points of tension in fundamental aspects of deaf activism related to sign language politics and deaf feminism.
Teaching
If you have been following the blog, you may know that one of my main goals here in Gallaudet is to develop my academic skills. Among them, I aim to improve my ability to conduct research and present findings effectively, but also to enhance my teaching and communication skills.
Finding a Balance in my First Semester
The last post was a while ago, in December. This was because we had the winter break for the holidays, and I used that time to get to know the United States better. I wanted to explore cities beyond Washington, D.C., so I spent time traveling, visiting different places, learning about history and culture, and, of course, enjoying the food..
A Transformative Experience at Gallaudet
This Mellon Foundation fellowship has been a game-changer. Immersed in the vibrant Deaf community at Gallaudet, I’ve gained invaluable insights into language, politics, and advocacy. From attending rallies to discussing election results in sign language, this experience has enriched my understanding of power, resistance, and the role of culture in shaping democracy.
Amelia Palmer
Amelia Palmer is currently based in Washington, D.C., where she serves as the Black Deaf Diaspora Outreach Assistant at the Center for Black Deaf Studies (CBDS) and as a Mellon Foundation Incubator Fellow in Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University. Originally from Ontario, Canada, and born to Jamaican parents, Amelia brings a unique perspective to her work, which centers on the intersections of race, culture, and Deaf identity.
Her academic contributions focus on uncovering and amplifying the narratives of Black Deaf communities. Amelia co-authored the groundbreaking paper, “Reconstructing a Hidden History: Black Deaf Canadian Relating Identity,” alongside Dr. Jenelle Rouse and Amy Parsons. This work has been instrumental in shedding light on the experiences and histories of Black Deaf Canadians, fostering greater awareness and understanding within both academic and broader social contexts.
Amelia’s dedication to advocacy and research continues to shape conversations around Black Deaf identity, ensuring these stories are recognized and preserved for future generations.
My research interests focus on uncovering and understanding the histories and life experiences of Black Deaf individuals, particularly within Canadian and the diasporic contexts. Lindsay Dunn, a retired professor from Gallaudet University, inspired this direction through his course Black Deaf History 1800-1899, which explored the lives of the Black Deaf peoples in the United States during the 19th century. Taking this course deepened my understanding of how historical erasure and systemic marginalization have shaped Black Deaf experiences.
This inspired me to investigate the Black Deaf Canadian experience during the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, the evidence suggests that some of the Black Deaf Canadians were sent to the United States for education. In 1857, Dr. Platt Henry Skinner operated a school for Black Deaf and Blind students in Niagara Falls, U.S.(2011), raising a critical question: Why were Black Deaf Canadians sent to the U.S. during a dangerous period marked by slavery and racial oppression? Why were they not admitted to Canadian Deaf Schools despite the existence of institutions such as Catholic schools for the deaf established in Quebec in 1848 (for boys) and 1851 (for girls), the Ontario Deaf school established in 1851, and the Nova Scotia Deaf school established in 1856?
I am particularly curious about whether any Black Deaf students attended these Canadian schools in the 19th century. Who were they? What were their experiences, and what paths did their lives take after completing their education? Did they become scholars, activists, or community leaders, similar to their counterparts in the United States?
This research is challenging due to the scarcity of historical records, compounded by the systemic erasure of Deaf histories and the even greater invisibility of Black Deaf narratives. My goal is to reconstruct these stories, working with limited resources to piece together the lives and contributions of Black Deaf individuals in Canada. By doing so, I hope to create meaningful narratives that honour their resilience and shed light on their overlooked histories.
Exploring Deaf History in Canada
Whew! The autumn semester has elapsed rapidly since the last blog entry on the Mellon Foundation Fellowship within the Deaf Studies department. As stated in the prior blog, I lacked an understanding of the Canadian historical context and resented my upbringing in that country.
Illuminating the Untold: Black Deaf History in Canada
My journey into Black Deaf Canadian history revealed a significant gap in knowledge. By exploring the intersection of Black and Deaf identities, I aim to uncover overlooked stories and contribute to a more inclusive historical narrative. #BlackDeafHistory #CanadianHistory