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Visualizing Deafness

A Prehistory of Deaf Culture

Location

Library and Gallery, Albin O. Kuhn

Date & Time

October 18, 2018, 4:00 pm6:00 pm

Description

Building on research on manual-kinetic communication in medieval and early modern Europe, Professor Jonathan Hsy suggests possibilities for a prehistory of deaf culture prior to the development of fully expressive sign languages. How did premodern people express the value of deafness as a physical condition and cultural practice? In what way can lived experience of deafness in the historical past reshape contemporary (often politicized) understandings of cultural, linguistic, or ethnic identity?