Penn ASL Lecture Series: “Deaf People on the Move, Temporal Dimensions.”

University of Pennsylvania announces the  Spring 2022 ASL Lecture Series event to be presented by Sanchu Iyer, Mobile Deaf Project, PhD Researcher, Languages & Intercultural Studies and Amandine le Maire, Mobile Deaf Project, PhD Researcher, Languages & Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University, Scotland.

The title of the  presentation is “Deaf People on the Move, Temporal Dimensions.”  The lecture will be held on Wednesday, February 23, from 5-6:30 as a live Zoom webinar.

The lecture will be presented in British Sign Language (BSL) with ASL with English interpretation and captioning available.  It is free and open to the public.

Mobile Deaf Project researchers Sanchu Iyer and Amandine le Maire explore mobilities of deaf people across international borders and how deaf people settle in a new environment. In this virtual program, they present their findings from two studies: a study based on everyday lived experiences of deaf people who were forced to migrate to Kakuma Refugee Camp and a study of everyday lived experiences of deaf migrants living in London. Employing varied ethnographic approaches, the pair research how deaf refugees’ and migrants’ everyday experiences are shaped by learning a new language, resettling in a new place, interacting with a new community/ties, maintaining contact with their families and friends, and waiting for future opportunities which enable the advancement of their life trajectories. Iyer and le Maire zoom in on this experience of waiting, which happens on different scales and has different temporal dimensions, and explore how the experience of waiting is shaped by factors such as the deaf migrants’ and refugees’ nationalities, cultures, languages, religions, race, and gender.

For more information on Mobile Deaf Project and our guests: mobiledeaf.org.uk/team.