Deaf Mobility Studies: Exploring International Networks, Tourism, and Migration

Deaf Mobility Studies revolutionizes how we think about deaf people’s international experiences. Equipped with a common theoretical framework, a team of five deaf ethnographers journeyed alongside their participants to delve into a rich array of experiences — ranging from career advancements and marriages to tourism and the challenges faced by deaf refugees. The authors present their findings within the framework of Deaf Mobility Studies, which brings together the transdisciplinary fields of Deaf Studies and Mobility Studies. Far from taking 'deaf cosmopolitanism' as a given, this work scrutinizes it as a multifaceted phenomenon to be both affirmed and questioned. Themes that emerge include how deaf people seek spaces of belonging, engage in languaging, expand their networks, and experience immobility.