Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning

Deaf Identity Revisited 135

person. I think that deaf people could do so much more. I also think it is positive for

me to go on searching.” However, Jerry wouldn’t have been able to achieve this trans-

formation without finding and claiming another fixed identity tied to deaf cultural

discourse. Braidotti notices that this paradox is not unusual in minorities, as they

may first need to go through a phase of “identity politics”—of claiming a fixed

location. This is both inevitable and necessary because you cannot give up

something you never had. Nor can you dispose nomadically of a subject po-

sition that you have never controlled to begin with. I think consequently that

the process of becoming-Nomad is internally differentiated and it depends

largely on where one starts from. (2003, p. 53)

This section introduced the notion of nomadic identities as a way of understanding

transformations in deaf identity. It touched on the role of liminality in deaf iden-

tity transitions and emancipation. A cartographic method reveals the web of power

relations in which deaf identities are produced. Leaving behind limiting forms of

thought and categories of deaf identity, nomadic pathways evoke a transition from

being to an open-ended becoming, which generates the potential for exploring new

horizons. This is happening in the politicization of deaf identities, which is a mi-

nority group identification that has characterized what, in the next section, I call

a second-stage process of deaf emancipation. The aspects of liminality and signed

community dialogue and storytelling in identity transformation are mentioned

again in upcoming sections, which explore transitions to a third-stage emancipation

during Flemish Deaf Parliament. In these transitions, deaf citizens challenge sec-

ond-stage politicized deaf identities and move toward becoming. The next section

explains these stages of emancipation further, and situates the Flemish process in an

overview of emancipation in Western deaf communities.

THE POLITICIzATION OF DEAF IDENTITIES: EMANCIPATION

PROCESSES IN DEAF COMMUNITIES IN EUROPE

AND THE UNITED STATES

Jerry’s story refers to limited representations of deafness that have prevailed in

science and society for a long time, preventing deaf people from living up to their

potential. The recognition of American Sign Language (ASL) through pioneering

linguistic research in the 1950s and 1960s and studies on Dutch Sign Language

during the same period paved the way for a paradigm shift in deaf studies and

the humanities. For the first time, being deaf was described from a social and cul-

tural perspective, illuminating communities’ collective resources and cultural, so-

cial, and historical practices (Hiddinga, 2012a; Stokoe, 1960; Stokoe, Casterline, &

Croneberg, 1965). These developments have contributed significantly to the deaf

emancipation movement worldwide, of which this section provides an overview

(also see Chapters 2 and 3). The Flemish case provides insight into the phenom-

enon of deaf people’s awakening and the ongoing politicization of their identities

from a perspective of attending to challenges.

From an anthropological perspective, identity claims in the Flemish deaf com-

munity and shifts in forms of representation from “handicapped” to “cultural and