Identity Formation and Transnational Discourses

Abstract

This article is an attempt to explore the role, if any, that transnational deaf identity politics plays within the lives of members of the Delhi Foundation of Deaf Women (DFDW). Taking a two-pronged ethnographic and historical approach, I will examine how the DFDW came to exist, situating it within the field of organisations serving the deaf in Delhi, as well as providing an overview of its structure and client profile. I will also examine the terrain of identity politics within the deaf community of the DFDW, and ask questions about what identity, deafness and kinship mean to its members. Most theory coming out of Deaf studies has ignored, until relatively recently, the category of gender. This article seeks to explore how culture and gender modify the constructions and experiences of Deaf identity.

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