by Kristin Snoddon
Around the world, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, deaf interpreters (DIs), sign language interpreters who are deaf, became more visible in emergency government briefings. These events inspired a line of research about DIs, sign language ideologies, and understanding that is featured in my new book Being Understood: Deaf Interpreters, Embodied Language and Relationality, published by Multilingual Matters.
One of the central themes in this book is linguistic flourishing, which occurs in anticipation of being understood. The first chapter narrates a flashbulb moment stemming from my participation in faculty Zoom meetings (which also became common during the pandemic) as the only deaf faculty member. In this situation and others where I often feel that I am not being understood, I have experienced more freedom when writing than I do when communicating through a sign language interpreter. This also illustrates how individuals can be simultaneously privileged and targeted by their semiotic repertoires and linguistic resources, which emerge from their own lived experience.
The theme of linguistic flourishing is also explored in a chapter about signing songs (translating popular music into sign language), featuring a deaf interpreter participant, Robert Bhola. Robert discusses his processes of mediating between languages, modalities, and semiotic resources to create ASL translations of popular music that are grounded in his lived experience as a hard of hearing individual who was born into and is embedded in deaf signing communities. As part of our research together, and with deaf videographers Xing Fan and Jason Theriault, we made an ethnographic film, Signing Songs. You can see the trailer here.
Another important theme explored in the book is ideologies of understanding. Two chapters, based on data that emerged during interviews with 12 Canadian deaf interpreter participants, problematize the widespread idea that deaf interpreters are employed to the needs of deaf people with “no language.” This idea reflects normative language ideologies and conceptions of interpreting and translation.
One chapter that analyzes this theme is based on an interview with a DI participant who due to his education in Canadian deaf schools and professional experience, was positioned as a peer of Canadian-born DIs. At the same time, due to his immigrant background and lived experience of language, he was placed in solidarity with deaf clients who are newcomers to Canada and multiply marginalized. This dual positioning and status enabled both greater understanding of deaf clients and insights regarding dominant language ideologies among other DIs. Another chapter further analyzes DI participants’ ideologies about their own powers of understanding and the work they do in translating a hearing interpreter’s signing. This shows how translation is the creation of meaning, and what is meaningful is also based on embodiment.
A third theme in this book focuses on Caribbean deaf epistemologies of language and understanding. This extends from my work with Robert Bhola, a Trinbagonian-Canadian, who first told me about soca music. Soca is a style of Trinbagonian popular music which emphasizes low musical frequencies and bass lines, making participation in Trinidad Carnival accessible to deaf people (since we can feel the music from the big trucks). With Ian Dhanoolal, a Trinbagonian deaf interpreter, and Xing Fan, I made another ethnographic film about this research, Deaf People at Trinidad Carnival. You can see the trailer here.
Continuing this theme, another chapter presents a preliminary discussion of Caribbean deaf queer epistemologies (ways of knowing). This chapter foregrounds my own standpoint and positionality in co-constructing knowledge with participants with different social identities. As Michele Friedner suggests, the shared biology of being deaf can be a way forward when doing Deaf Studies in the Global South. However, as this book reveals, being deaf also a route to understanding across borders and differences of various kinds, both near and far.
Kristin Snoddon, Ph.D, is a Professor and Graduate Program Director with the School of Early Childhood Studies, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. Her current research focuses on sign language ideologies and ideologies of understanding related to deaf interpreters in Canada and the Caribbean.
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