214 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning
links among my changing biography, my research perspectives, and the develop-
ment of a field; and describing how my location has influenced the research pro-
cess. This has enabled me to highlight how deaf community members exchange
wisdom-based knowledge and strengths, sources I have found particularly useful
in overcoming the obstacles I experienced during my studies. It has also led to a
reflection on the experienced tension between the desire for actualizing one’s po-
tential and the barriers to this process; this has also been tied to a critical discussion
of the (one-dimensional) notion of deaf empowerment. This has also opened a
pathway for a relational ontology. Ultimately, self-reflection and analysis have en-
abled me to view the anthropology I have constructed as an anthropology of flour-
ishing, which documents an optimal state of well-being for deaf people. I perceive
the methodology I have cultivated as doing strength-centered ethnography: ethnography
that studies the linguistic, cultural, educational, and intellectual (knowledge- and
wisdom-based) practices of deaf people and deaf communities through an interac-
tive process that recognizes individual and collective strengths. I hope that further
research will contribute to greater exploration of this perspective.NOTE
The writing of this chapter was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship of the Re-
search Foundation Flanders at Ghent University.