Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Deaf Communities in Tanzania

研究生杰西卡·李（科罗拉多大学）将在特伦斯·麦凯布博士的指导下，调查坦桑尼亚聋人社区是如何形成和维持的。 研究将侧重于在极端边缘化和视觉传播的独特情况下影响身份和社区形成的过程。 研究者将使用调查、生活史和小组访谈、照片视觉和参与者观察来了解（1）聋人如何以及何时参与公共生活，（2）非政府组织，特别是坦桑尼亚聋人协会，如何传递关于聋人身份政治的跨国话语并影响聋人的身份形成，坦桑尼亚的社会环境如何影响聋人的自我建构以及文化聋人、耳聋和残疾等类别。 参加者将从与非政府组织有不同程度联系的聋人和其他聋人中招募。 这项研究将比较大都市达累斯萨拉姆和农村地区伊林加的这些发现。 这项研究将有助于增加对聋人社区的了解。 鉴于缺乏对生活在撒哈拉以南非洲等贫穷国家的聋人的研究，这一点尤为重要。 这项研究还将有助于讨论非政府组织及其在全球话语与当地生活互动的跨国影响网络中的作用。 坦桑尼亚是一个有趣的研究地点，因为聋人的积极性，坦桑尼亚手语的独特性，以及非政府组织参与的历史。 该项目将有助于对身份和社区形成、非政府组织和全球化以及聋人研究的理论讨论。 它将对发展中世界最脆弱和最边缘化的群体之一聋人的宣传和政策制定等应用问题具有重要意义。

Graduate student Jessica Lee (University of Colorado), supervised by Dr. J. Terrence McCabe, will investigate how community is formed and maintained among deaf people in Tanzania. The research will focus on the processes that influence identity and community formation in the context of extreme marginalization and the unique situation of visual communication. The researcher will use survey, life-history and group interviews, photo visioning, and participant-observation in order to understand (1) how and when do deaf people participate in public life, (2) how are NGOs, particularly the Tanzanian Association of the Deaf, transfer points of transnational discourses about deaf identity politics and influence identity formation in deaf people, and (3) how the social contexts of living in Tanzania affect deaf people's construction of self and categories like culturally deaf, deafness, and disability. Participants will be recruited from deaf people with variable levels of association with the NGO and other deaf people. The research will compare these findings between a metropolitan city, Dar es Salaam, and a more rural location, Iringa. This research will contribute to a growing body of knowledge on communities of deaf people. It is particularly important in light of the dearth of research on people who are deaf living in poor countries, such as those of Sub-Saharan Africa. This study will also contribute to discussions about NGOs and their role in transnational networks of influence as global discourses engage with local lives. Tanzania makes for an interesting research site due to the deaf activism, the distinctiveness of Tanzanian Sign Language, and the history of NGO involvement. This project will contribute to theoretical discussions of identity and community formation, NGOs and globalization, and Deaf studies. It will be significant in applied issues like advocacy and policy formation for one of the most vulnerable and marginalized populations in the developing world, the deaf.