8 February 2012, 5:00-6:30pm 17 Claudia Cohen Hall, 249 South 36th Street

Being Global
Transnational Spheres of Deaf People

In association with the ASL Program in
Penn's Department of Linguistics.

Joseph Murray
Assistant Professor, ASL and Deaf Studies
Gallaudet University

Human beings have an innate need to learn and use language. This need is usually satisfied by pushing short bursts of air through the larynx and lips, an act otherwise known as speaking. But for other humans, language is expressed through the manipulation of the digits and hands, an act otherwise known as signing, or sign language. Over the years, various kinds of signing communities have emerged.  There are so-called “village signing communities,” heavily localized communities of deaf and hearing signers sharing a common genetic variant for deafness. There are national communities of signers, with sign language schools, substantial bodies of literature, and formal political associations that work to ensure their members enjoy full human rights despite their geographic dispersal among non-signing people. 

Professor Joseph J. Murray looks at the development of a transnational sphere of signing people. This transnational space emerged in the early 1800s, with deaf and signing people from different nations beginning to gather at conferences, banquets, and other events to interact and share ideas on living as visual minorities in an auditory world. All languages evolve in a particular place among a specific group of users, and signed languages are no more international than spoken languages. However, transnational contact between deaf people of different signed languages over a period of two centuries has shaped the development of what is now known as International Sign, a pidgin used by signing people in their transnational meetings.   

What advantages do signing people have as navigators in transnational spaces? What can we learn from these interactions about the abilities and adaptations of human beings more generally, and about the potential for global communities?