130 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning
“Deaf Identity Formation in Times of Change and Uncertainty,” which not only
sketches these broader societal changes and deaf community transitions, but also
introduces Flemish Deaf Parliament as a platform for a shared future (De Clerck,
2016a). The emancipatory potential of this initiative resides in its opportunities for
all members to participate in their own way, whether as observers or as actors who
are more or less involved on the public stage. This enables members to gain a better
understanding of each other and explore inclusive and sustainable alternatives.
The section titled “Flights of Nomadic Deaf Citizenship” on p. 148 evokes the
betweenity of second-stage consciousness and third-stage individual trajectories of
equality. It highlights trajectories of ‘becoming’ and positions of subjectivity and
citizenship which manifest through the telling of one’s story in Flemish Deaf Parlia-
ment. In alignment with Arendt’s relational and political notion of citizenship, this
public storytelling intimates that, after being physically born in the private sphere,
one is born a second time as a unique human being when one enters the public
stage. This section looks into these “tales of birth,” which are told in turn by a deaf
person who challenges the myth of individual success; deaf community newcomers;
deaf elders; and deaf migrants engaging in a dialogue with members. These dia-
logues challenge exclusion in second-stage deaf identity notions and explore inclu-
sive alternatives, allowing open-ended pathways of generative potentiality, multiple
identities and belonging.
It is in these pathways of deaf citizenship, as they emerge in the Flemish Deaf
Parliament, that I find openings for an inclusive space of post-identity and an epis-
temological-ontological shift from being towards a nomadic becoming. From there,
I argue that creative cross-pollinating with alternative notions of citizenship is nec-
essary for furthering deaf emancipation and being better equipped to meet contem-
porary challenges. This perspective enables me to revisit the quest for deaf identity
in the final two sections, highlighting the way this chapter has been woven along a
web of personal stories. One section looks at the role of storytelling in shaping one’s
identity, and also into the fuel for this storytelling, which may be found in desire. In
the final section, I argue that the telling of tales of birth makes cracks in the mirror
of collective deaf heritage in which members have formed their identities. These
cracks generate affirmative power and enable deaf citizens to tell fresh relational
narratives, and, by doing so, to change narrative heritage.
Altogether, the chapter aims to provide a theoretical framework from which transi-
tions in deaf identity can be understood against a community’s background of eman-
cipation, as well as in relation to the broader sociocultural and political atmosphere.
It also aims to respond to questions on uncertainty and sustainability (for example
concerning the future of the Flemish deaf community and in educational contexts).TRANSFORMATIONS IN DEAF IDENTITY
AND BECOMING A DEAF NOMAD
This section attempts to illustrate nomadic citizenship using Flemish deaf commu-
nity members’ narratives of identity and change. It supplements Chapter 3, where I
describe transitions in deaf identities through the process of awakening and empow-
erment, which arose in the life stories of Flemish deaf role models. Transnational