Job opportunities! Posts are open to all applicants, but under exemptions under the Equality Act 2010, priority will be given to those applicants who are autistic and with relevant skills.
Last chance to sign up! DRF 19th April. 10am-Noon. Fran Urbistondo Cano and Holly Burkinshaw will be speaking about “Autism and Learning Disabilities: A Relationship-Centred Approach for Support Workers in Social Care” and “Exploration children’s narrations of long term and reoccurring hospitalisation”
To register: https://forms.office.com/e/aSWDu7NeER
Talk 1, Title: Autism and Learning Disabilities: A Relationship-Centred Approach for Support Workers in Social Care
Talk 1, Abstract:
Adults labelled as ‘having autism and learning disabilities’ in
England receive the support of the social care system through the
assistance of paid staff called ‘care and support workers’ or
‘personal assistants’. The market offers different kinds of training
for care staff, such as Active Support, Person-centred Thinking and
Planning, Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), Low Arousal Approach, and
the SPELL framework. In my presentation, I will share some ideas and
reflections on an ecological perspective of social care, highlighting
key characteristics of available training and approaches, and invite a
shift from what in social care is traditionally called
‘person-centred’, to what I refer to as a ‘relationship-centred
approach’. As a systemically oriented Counselling Psychologist, I will
explain how I developed a model to engage with support workers.
Adopting a fiction-based approach, I will illustrate the complexities
of such work involving personal, professional, and socio-cultural
perspectives. The examples portray common scenarios from practice that
many care workers might find familiar. Finally, this presentation is
based on my inquiry conducted for a Professional Doctorate in Systemic
Practice which focused on autism and LD in the context of social care.
The inquiry contributes learning to professional support for autistics
with learning disabilities by inviting examination of personal and
professional experiences, stimulating professional debate, and
generating knowledge about working alongside care workers and people
who use services from a dialogical, relational, and social
constructionist stance.
Bio
Dr Fran Urbistondo Cano is a systemically-oriented Counselling
Psychologist originally from Argentina. He works with people labelled
as having autism and learning disabilities in social care, the NHS,
and the forensic system in England. Fran is also a course tutor and
research supervisor for the Professional Doctorate in Systemic
Practice at the University of Bedfordshire. His research is on the
deconstruction of psychological narratives about people with learning
disabilities and autism and promoting a relational model for social
care.
Contact
francisco.urbistondocano@beds.ac.uk
Keywords:
Autism, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, social care,
care workers, support workers, training, person-centred,
relationship-centred, systemic, relational, dialogical, fiction-based
research.
Talk 2, Title: Exploration children’s narrations of long term and reoccurring hospitalisation
Talk 2, Abstract:
This presentation reports on a qualitative study that was conducted for a PhD thesis. The research was concerned with the experiences of long term or regularly hospitalised children and young people. The study involved the recruitment of six participants to explore the research question: what we can learn from the stories that people choose to share about their experiences of hospitalisation. While much has been improved in relation to children’s hospitals and the care that children receive, there is significant concern in literature and policy alike for children aged between 11-16 years old. This thesis attends to some of these concerns. Several disciplines have contributed to the understanding of children in hospital, including psychology, sociology, childhood studies, disabled children’s childhood studies, critical disability studies, nursing, and medicine. The study grounds itself in disabled children’s childhood studies (Curran et al. 2013) and utilises poststructuralist thought and concepts of spatiality to explore the multi-modal data. Developing a cross methodological approach, the study develops and employs a narrative-autoethnographic approach to research methodology. It exploits the richness of different modes of storytelling to situate the researcher’s stories alongside those of participants in the study. I move on to discuss how young people in the hospital had an idea of the way that they were perceived by others, which they found limiting and oppressive. A strong theme which emerged from the data was that of not feeling heard or being misunderstood whilst in hospital; this theme is explored in the study in relation to power. The theme of fear, despite dominating medical literature, came through more subtly highlighting a need to better understand children and young people’s fears, as well as how important the mundane was for young people. This study identified a need to continuously problematise notions of normalcy, especially in terms of children’s communication. It identifies an urgent need to develop ways of multi-modal listening to young people in hospital, and thus has implications for policy, practice, research and theory, respectively. The thesis calls for a more nuanced understanding of non-verbal communication employed by many young people, whilst also reflecting on how we can better hear young people’s communication.
DRF Event 6! – Final one this academic year! April 19th, 10am – Noon. Fran Urbistondo Cano and Holly Burkinshaw will be speaking about “Autism and Learning Disabilities: A Relationship-Centred Approach for Support Workers in Social Care” and “Exploration children’s narrations of long term and reoccurring hospitalisation”
To register: https://forms.office.com/e/aSWDu7NeER
Talk 1, Title: Autism and Learning Disabilities: A Relationship-Centred Approach for Support Workers in Social Care
Talk 1, Abstract:
Adults labelled as ‘having autism and learning disabilities’ in
England receive the support of the social care system through the
assistance of paid staff called ‘care and support workers’ or
‘personal assistants’. The market offers different kinds of training
for care staff, such as Active Support, Person-centred Thinking and
Planning, Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), Low Arousal Approach, and
the SPELL framework. In my presentation, I will share some ideas and
reflections on an ecological perspective of social care, highlighting
key characteristics of available training and approaches, and invite a
shift from what in social care is traditionally called
‘person-centred’, to what I refer to as a ‘relationship-centred
approach’. As a systemically oriented Counselling Psychologist, I will
explain how I developed a model to engage with support workers.
Adopting a fiction-based approach, I will illustrate the complexities
of such work involving personal, professional, and socio-cultural
perspectives. The examples portray common scenarios from practice that
many care workers might find familiar. Finally, this presentation is
based on my inquiry conducted for a Professional Doctorate in Systemic
Practice which focused on autism and LD in the context of social care.
The inquiry contributes learning to professional support for autistics
with learning disabilities by inviting examination of personal and
professional experiences, stimulating professional debate, and
generating knowledge about working alongside care workers and people
who use services from a dialogical, relational, and social
constructionist stance.
Bio
Dr Fran Urbistondo Cano is a systemically-oriented Counselling
Psychologist originally from Argentina. He works with people labelled
as having autism and learning disabilities in social care, the NHS,
and the forensic system in England. Fran is also a course tutor and
research supervisor for the Professional Doctorate in Systemic
Practice at the University of Bedfordshire. His research is on the
deconstruction of psychological narratives about people with learning
disabilities and autism and promoting a relational model for social
care.
Contact
francisco.urbistondocano@beds.ac.uk
Keywords:
Autism, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, social care,
care workers, support workers, training, person-centred,
relationship-centred, systemic, relational, dialogical, fiction-based
research.
Talk 2, Title: Exploration children’s narrations of long term and reoccurring hospitalisation
Talk 2, Abstract:
This presentation reports on a qualitative study that was conducted for a PhD thesis. The research was concerned with the experiences of long term or regularly hospitalised children and young people. The study involved the recruitment of six participants to explore the research question: what we can learn from the stories that people choose to share about their experiences of hospitalisation. While much has been improved in relation to children’s hospitals and the care that children receive, there is significant concern in literature and policy alike for children aged between 11-16 years old. This thesis attends to some of these concerns. Several disciplines have contributed to the understanding of children in hospital, including psychology, sociology, childhood studies, disabled children’s childhood studies, critical disability studies, nursing, and medicine. The study grounds itself in disabled children’s childhood studies (Curran et al. 2013) and utilises poststructuralist thought and concepts of spatiality to explore the multi-modal data. Developing a cross methodological approach, the study develops and employs a narrative-autoethnographic approach to research methodology. It exploits the richness of different modes of storytelling to situate the researcher’s stories alongside those of participants in the study. I move on to discuss how young people in the hospital had an idea of the way that they were perceived by others, which they found limiting and oppressive. A strong theme which emerged from the data was that of not feeling heard or being misunderstood whilst in hospital; this theme is explored in the study in relation to power. The theme of fear, despite dominating medical literature, came through more subtly highlighting a need to better understand children and young people’s fears, as well as how important the mundane was for young people. This study identified a need to continuously problematise notions of normalcy, especially in terms of children’s communication. It identifies an urgent need to develop ways of multi-modal listening to young people in hospital, and thus has implications for policy, practice, research and theory, respectively. The thesis calls for a more nuanced understanding of non-verbal communication employed by many young people, whilst also reflecting on how we can better hear young people’s communication.
Leeds Disability Studies Conference 2024
Information taken from: https://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/conference/call-for-papers/ Please access the link for more details.
We invite presentations, collective discussion and debate which engage with, challenge and provoke the principles and practice of Disability Studies – from both within or beyond the discipline. We particularly encourage submissions that privilege the voices of those who have been marginalised and on topics that have hitherto not been the focus of Disability Studies activity.
Abstracts and proposals (of up to 300 words) can be submitted electronically at https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/36496/submitter
Deadline for submissions: Tuesday 30th April 2024
Proposal Reviews: May 2024
Proposal Acceptance Notification: Monday 3rd June
Deadline for Presenter registration for inclusion in the programme schedule: Friday 5th July
Last call for DRF Event 5. Wednesday 13th March, 11am – 1pm. Erin Pritchard and Katrine Risbank Jensen will be speaking about “Midgetism: Exploring the exploitation and discrimination of dwarfism” and “A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System”
To register: https://forms.office.com/e/2UgczDpCb2
Talk 1, Title: Midgetism: Exploring the exploitation and discrimination of dwarfism
Talk 1, Abstract:
People with dwarfism experience oppression which is informed by both heightism and disablism, and thus separately these terms cannot truly demonstrate these oppressive attitudes and encounters within society. Drawing on findings from my newest book, Midgetism: the exploitation and discrimination of people with dwarfism, this presentation introduces the term Midgetism, to explore the oppression people with dwarfism experience. The book engages with autocritical discourse analysis in order to examine problematic representations, which I argue are informed by and further encourage midgetism within society, exemplified by my own personal experiences as a woman with dwarfism. Furthermore, it argues as to why the term midget, when referring to a ‘midget entertainer’, should be reclaimed and repurposed for analytical and advocacy purposes only. It is argued that midget entertainment, such as midget tossing and midget wrestling, is a key factor in reinforcing midgetism within society. Particular reference is made to the problematic assumptions, held by average-sized people, who claim that midget entertainment is an acceptable form of employment for people with dwarfism, exposing the socially constructed inferior standing of them within society.
Keywords: midgetism, dwarfism, midget entertainer, autocritical discourse analysis, oppression
Talk 2, Title: A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System
Talk 2, Abstract:
In this talk I will be presenting my PhD project, A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System. The aim of the project is to generate knowledge regarding the consequences experienced by families comprising children with disabilities (disabled families) when faced with navigating the complex beliefs and expectations set forth by welfare professionals in the context of the Danish social welfare system. To accomplish this, I focus on the families’ embodied experiences of disability by applying an ethnographic intercorporeal perspective. How interactions with welfare professionals affect their quality of life, and which strategies they actively employ to gain influence over their own existence and social identity, are just some of the questions this project delves into.
There is still time to grab a spot! DRF Event 5. Wednesday 13th March. Erin Pritchard and Katrine Risbank Jensen will be speaking about “Midgetism: Exploring the exploitation and discrimination of dwarfism” and “A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System”
To register: https://forms.office.com/e/2UgczDpCb2
Talk 1, Title: Midgetism: Exploring the exploitation and discrimination of dwarfism
Talk 1, Abstract:
People with dwarfism experience oppression which is informed by both heightism and disablism, and thus separately these terms cannot truly demonstrate these oppressive attitudes and encounters within society. Drawing on findings from my newest book, Midgetism: the exploitation and discrimination of people with dwarfism, this presentation introduces the term Midgetism, to explore the oppression people with dwarfism experience. The book engages with autocritical discourse analysis in order to examine problematic representations, which I argue are informed by and further encourage midgetism within society, exemplified by my own personal experiences as a woman with dwarfism. Furthermore, it argues as to why the term midget, when referring to a ‘midget entertainer’, should be reclaimed and repurposed for analytical and advocacy purposes only. It is argued that midget entertainment, such as midget tossing and midget wrestling, is a key factor in reinforcing midgetism within society. Particular reference is made to the problematic assumptions, held by average-sized people, who claim that midget entertainment is an acceptable form of employment for people with dwarfism, exposing the socially constructed inferior standing of them within society.
Keywords: midgetism, dwarfism, midget entertainer, autocritical discourse analysis, oppression
Talk 2, Title: A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System
Talk 2, Abstract:
In this talk I will be presenting my PhD project, A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System. The aim of the project is to generate knowledge regarding the consequences experienced by families comprising children with disabilities (disabled families) when faced with navigating the complex beliefs and expectations set forth by welfare professionals in the context of the Danish social welfare system. To accomplish this, I focus on the families’ embodied experiences of disability by applying an ethnographic intercorporeal perspective. How interactions with welfare professionals affect their quality of life, and which strategies they actively employ to gain influence over their own existence and social identity, are just some of the questions this project delves into.
DRF Event 5! Wednesday, 13th March 2024, 11am-1pm. Erin Pritchard and Katrine Risbank Jensen will be speaking about “Midgetism: Exploring the exploitation and discrimination of dwarfism” and “A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System”
To register: https://forms.office.com/e/2UgczDpCb2
Talk 1, Title: Midgetism: Exploring the exploitation and discrimination of dwarfism
Talk 1, Abstract:
People with dwarfism experience oppression which is informed by both heightism and disablism, and thus separately these terms cannot truly demonstrate these oppressive attitudes and encounters within society. Drawing on findings from my newest book, Midgetism: the exploitation and discrimination of people with dwarfism, this presentation introduces the term Midgetism, to explore the oppression people with dwarfism experience. The book engages with autocritical discourse analysis in order to examine problematic representations, which I argue are informed by and further encourage midgetism within society, exemplified by my own personal experiences as a woman with dwarfism. Furthermore, it argues as to why the term midget, when referring to a ‘midget entertainer’, should be reclaimed and repurposed for analytical and advocacy purposes only. It is argued that midget entertainment, such as midget tossing and midget wrestling, is a key factor in reinforcing midgetism within society. Particular reference is made to the problematic assumptions, held by average-sized people, who claim that midget entertainment is an acceptable form of employment for people with dwarfism, exposing the socially constructed inferior standing of them within society.
Keywords: midgetism, dwarfism, midget entertainer, autocritical discourse analysis, oppression
Talk 2, Title: A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System
Talk 2, Abstract:
In this talk I will be presenting my PhD project, A Family Disabled: Negotiating the Meaning of Disability in the Danish Social Welfare System. The aim of the project is to generate knowledge regarding the consequences experienced by families comprising children with disabilities (disabled families) when faced with navigating the complex beliefs and expectations set forth by welfare professionals in the context of the Danish social welfare system. To accomplish this, I focus on the families’ embodied experiences of disability by applying an ethnographic intercorporeal perspective. How interactions with welfare professionals affect their quality of life, and which strategies they actively employ to gain influence over their own existence and social identity, are just some of the questions this project delves into.
Call for participants!
A Disabled University Experience: Lessons for and experiences of disabled undergraduates
We are seeking submissions of previously unpublished articles on disabilities with special focus on manuscripts that either study the experiences of disabled undergraduate students or are written for an undergraduate audience, to be published in the forthcoming issue of the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies.
Please submit your extended abstracts (200-500 words) to Special Issue Editors Dr Paul Bones (pbones@twu.edu) and Dr Christopher Churchill (chrisamchurchill@gmail.com) by 7/15/2024. Please include your contact information in your email. For those accepted for consideration, the deadline for full paper submission is 1/30/2025 for preliminary review. Final submission will be no more than 6000 words, excluding references, notes and tables.
Topics include (but are not limited to):
Navigating ableist educational institutions
Disabled Identity Formation
Disability as an intersection
Indigeneity and disability
Quality and life and disability
Madness and Mental Health
Building Mad and Disabled Communities
Access and Accommodations
Explaining Disability
Call for Participants!
Hello, I am Hannah Seat
I am looking for Autistic LGBTQIA+ adults who are willing to participate in my PhD research.
What is the focus of the PhD study?
*To explore the lived experiences of autistic LGBTQIA+ people within educational settings and community-based spaces
Who can take part?
*You must be aged 18 years or over
*You must be autistic (either self-identifying or formally diagnosed) and identify within the LGBTQIA+ community
*You must be UK-based
What is involved?
*Prior to the interview, you will be invited to create an ‘identity box’, with 5 objects or images that represent your autistic LGBTQIA+ identity and experiences (optional task)
*You will be invited to take part in two interviews about your experiences of educational settings and community-based spaces. Each interview will last approx.1 hour
*Interviews can be held at Leeds Beckett University, Headingley OR via Microsoft Teams online
*Interviews will be a relaxed conversation at your own pace with freedom for rest breaks, movement and stimming
*This research is conducted by an autistic LGBTQIA+ researcher
*Interview questions will be provided in advance
*Access arrangements will be discussed in advance
Interested? To find out more, please contact Hannah: Email: H.Seat4955@student.leedsbeckett.ac.uk
Thank you in advance,
Hannah
Final call! There is still time to sign up to DRF Event 4. Feb 23rd. 11.30am-1.30pm. Xavier Tam and Gemma King talk about “Theorizing “Cinema of Deafhood” as “New ‘Deaf’ Cinema”: Why is a Deaf-centric Critical Approach (Deafhoodist Film Criticism) Essential to the Development of Deaf Cinema, Deaf Film Festivals, and Sign Language Media?” and “Superpowers and Deaf Gain in Sign Language Cinemas”
Date: 23rd February 2024
Time: 11:30am – 1:30pm
Note: Session will be supported by International Sign Language Interpreters. We are now able to record the session. If you sign up but then can’t attend please let me know and I will send a link to the recording.
Presenter 1, Name: Xavier Tam
Presenter 2, Name: Gemma King
To register: Please fill out the registration form
Talk 1, Title: Theorizing “Cinema of Deafhood” as “New ‘Deaf’ Cinema”: Why is a Deaf-centric Critical Approach (Deafhoodist Film Criticism) Essential to the Development of Deaf Cinema, Deaf Film Festivals, and Sign Language Media?
Talk 1, Abstract:
This presentation will discuss the research on Deaf Cinema (DC), Deaf Film Festival (DFF), and Sign Language Media (SLM). It will provide parameters for understanding these topics and explain why Ladd’s concept of “Deafhood” is crucial as a critical theory when developing and discussing DC, DFF, and SLM. The presentation will also introduce the term “Cinema of Deafhood” and its significance to the construction of a Deaf-centric critical approach to film studies (i.e., Deafhoodist Film Criticism).
In the French language, the term “Silent Cinema” is often referred to as “Cinéma Muet,” which translates to “Mute Cinema” in English. However, Michel Chion, a film theorist and experimental musician, argued that “Cinéma Sourd”, meaning “Deaf Cinema,” is a more accurate description of the film viewing experience of Silent Cinema. [1] This was the very first time “Deaf Cinema” was used in academic scholarship, and Chion’s argument was not related to the identity politics of Deaf people. Rather, it was a debate on whether “Cinéma Muet” or “Cinéma Sourd” best explains the perception of sound in Silent Cinema.
B. Ruby Rich’s essay “New Queer Cinema” was a seminal work that established the concept of Queer Cinema. Rich observed that the emergence of LGBTQ Film Festivals and independent films in the 1990s gave rise to positive portrayals of LGBTQ people and queer consciousness. [2] Prior to Rich’s essay, the idea of “Queer Cinema” was not institutionalized in academic film criticism. The rise of Queer Theory in the 1990s provided the theoretical background for queer film criticism.
In 2003, British Deaf Sociologist Paddy Ladd introduced the term “Deafhood” as a culturo-linguistic model of understanding Deaf Culture. [3] The medical and social models of deafness have long been associated with disability, with the medical model focusing on bodily dysfunctions and the social model concerning how society and the environment disable D/deaf people. Ladd’s notion of “Deafhood” celebrates the use of sign language as the vehicle for Deaf Culture, making the Deaf Community a “culturo-linguistic” minority that is distinct from disability.
As a Deaf Film Festival curator and Deaf Cinema researcher, I felt the need to create new vocabulary to recognize the complexity of Deaf Cinema. In curating the Third Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival in 2012/13, I coined the term “Cinema of Deafhood” to “re-De(a)fine” our understanding of “Deaf Cinema”, mimicking Rich’s creation of “New Queer Cinema”. [4] This term problematizes Chion’s notion of “Cinéma Sourd” in understanding
Silent Cinema as “Deaf Cinema.” It also incorporates Ladd’s proposition of “Deafhood” as a critical approach to distinguish the representations of D/deaf people in mainstream, commercial films from that of Deaf-centric, independent films. The existing scholarship on Deaf Cinema merely describes how D/deaf people are represented in films but fails to explain how some depictions of D/deaf people are culturally political vis-a-vis Deafhood, Deaf art and social movements, and more.
Bibliography
[1] Chion, Michel. The Voice in Cinema. Translated by Claudia Gorbman. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
[2] Rich, B. Ruby. New Queer Cinema : The Director’s Cut. Durham: Duke University Press, 2013.
[3] Ladd, Paddy. Understanding Deaf Culture in Search of Deafhood. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters, 2003.
[4] Tam, Siu Yan Xavier. “Two Notions of Deaf Cinema: “Cinema of Deafhood” VS “Cinema of deafness”. Foreword, Programme Booklet, The Third Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival. https://hkidff.hk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/leaflet-3rd.pdf
Bio
Siu-Yan “Xavier” TAM is an Instructional Assistant in Social Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He co-founded and curated the Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival between 2010 and 2014. His co-directed Deaf mockumentary film Why Signed Songs? premiered at Stockholm Deaf Film Festival (Dövfilmfestival) in 2016, and won Silent Magnolia Award in Best Television Programme at Shanghai International Deaf Film Festival in 2018. As an independent researcher in Deafhood Studies, his research interests include Deaf Cinema, Deaf Film Festivals and Sign Language Media. He is allied with Dr. Gemma King’s “Sign on Screen” project at Australian National University.
Contact Xavier Tam (Instructional Assistant, Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) tamsiuyanxavier@gmail.com / xtam@ust.hk / https://sosc.hkust.edu.hk/node/668
Key words:
Deafhood, deafness, Deaf Cinema, Deaf Film Festivals, Sign Language Media, Cinema of Deafhood, Deafhoodist Film Criticism
Talk 2, Title: Superpowers and Deaf Gain in Sign Language Cinemas
Talk 2, Abstract:
Since 2010, more films and series in sign language have been released than in the entire century of film history that preceded it. As Deaf actors and producers such as Marlee Matlin, Lauren Ridloff, Troy Kotsur and Nyle DiMarco gain unprecedented recognition, and as dialogue in sign languages becomes increasingly prevalent on international screens, patterns of d/Deaf representation are beginning to shift. Cinema has a long history of effacing the linguistic complexity of sign, of casting hearing actors in deaf roles and of perpetuating tropes of silence as isolation and deafness as tragedy. These patterns were influenced by a widespread history of discrimination in the form of oralism and audism in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, in recent years, sign language cinema has not only exponentially grown, but it has begun to reflect more authentic Deaf perspectives, as more Deaf creators are included in the writing, production and filming process. In the 2020s in particular, sign language cinema is increasingly dominated by Deaf characters who are not only powerful agents of self-determination, but literal superheroes.
Drawing on the work of Deaf Crit scholars Paddy Ladd and H. Dirksen Bauman and their concept of ‘Deaf Gain’ (2014), this paper zooms in on a growing body of sign language film and television texts that represent Deaf superheroes. From Eternals (Chloé Zhao 2021) to Hawkeye (Jonathan Igla 2022), via El Deafo (Cece Bell 2022) and SuperDeafy (Troy Kotsur 2017), this corpus shows us d/Deaf characters whose deafness is either irrelevant to their physical prowess, or the direct source of superhuman abilities linked to sign language, vibration perception, lip reading, spatial awareness or heightened vision. Several of these protagonists are multiply disabled, or occupy intersectional identities. Of her role as Makkari in Eternals, Black Deaf actor Lauren Ridloff has praised the power of positive minority representation for d/Deaf people, especially children, in ways that parallel the role model effect of Black Panther for Black children, Wonder Woman for girls or Captain Marvel for Queer youth. However none of these superhero texts are fully Deaf-led, and are still filtered through hearing societal norms.
Situating these films and series in a mostly (but not solely) US context, the paper examines the striking changes to Deaf representation they provide, while also critiquing their picture of unattainable exceptionalism. It will then turn to a range of recent screen texts which provide a counterimage to this Deaf exceptionalism, in which radically humanising narratives paint a picture of Deaf normality. Throughout, it asks what our screens can tell us about sign language, deafness and power- and why it matters who is doing the telling.
Bio
Gemma King is Senior Lecturer in French at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on contemporary francophone cinemas and museums, as well as transnational screen cultures. From 2023-2026, she is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow on the project ‘Sign on Screen: Language, Culture and Power in Sign Language Cinemas’. She is the author of the books Decentring France: Multilingualism and Power in Contemporary French Cinema (Manchester University Press, 2017) and Jacques Audiard (2021), a volume in Manchester UP’s French Film Directors series.
Disability Research Forum 