so excited for the upcoming panel — STACKED full of scholars i admire — in honor of jon henner, led by Octavian Robinson, with Anna Lim, Erin Moriarty, and my collaborator/bluesky parent @linasigns.bsky.social
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“listening flexibly” is the title of the panel. dr robinson explains this in the frame of linguistic care work, establishing norms which shift the communicative burden — which is disproportionately held by deaf interlocutors in a hearing academic world — instead to the audience
this means, among other things, that it is on the audience to sit in discomfort with unfamiliar terms and concepts, ask follow up questions, and not just rely on mediated communication via interpreters
Dr Lim (whose research is truly fabulous https://www.annalim.org/) encourages us to look forward as we remember Jon, to the work and people Jon inspired and uplifted
Dr Robinson brings up a tweet from Jon critiquing the gatekeeping in “formal” linguistics, particularly as it relates to how research which concerns the material conditions of deaf people is seen and excluded. A very apt point in this space!
Dr Moriarty discusses ideologies of languagelessness which are foisted upon deaf people, pointing out the rich linguistic-semiotic landscape in this very room. She asks, as a linguistic anthropologist, what are the political commitments of the formal linguists in this room?
Dr Hou describes the theoretical commitments of usage-based linguistics. She discusses how the centering of “native” signers in formal sign language ling has led to exclusion, in that her intuitions and the intuitions of those like her are not considered to represent ASL
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