On Learning One’s Name: A Co/Autoethnographic Account of Language Ideologies, Naming Practices, and Deaf Identity Development

Abstract: Drawing on divergent subject positions, this co/autoethnographic inquiry was inspired by performative, dialogic engagement between a doctoral student from Brazil and a professor from the United States. Our inquiry focuses on the development of a deaf identity revealed through naming practices in the context of a multilingual, multimodal linguistic ecology. These vignettes and reflections reveal the phonocentric language ideologies that manifest in disciplinary practices designed to normalize deaf bodies as well as the counter practices of naming in the deaf community.