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Title

Adjusting The Margins: Building Bridges Between Deaf and Hearing Cultures Through Performance Arts

Author

Davis Haggerty, Luane Ruth

Degree

Ph.D., Antioch University, Leadership and Change, 2006.

Advisor

Carolyn B. Kenny

Pages

298p.

Abstract

This study addresses a gap in scholarship on leadership styles in the Deaf community. There is an invisible style of leadership differing from the mainstream culture not previously addressed in the literature at any depth. My study is composed of three interlocking parts; the practice of anthropology: fieldwork, analysis, and presentation. The foundation for my fieldwork, is an "archeology of the structure of the perceived world" (Merleau-Ponty), using the holding environment of the rehearsal process and the structural process of an acting technique called Del-Sign. Del-Sign is a fusion acting style created by combining American Sign Language and the Delsarte method. I also employed current qualitative methods described as "performance ethnography" (Norman Denzin and Ron Pelias). The fieldwork of creating discussion groups, or salons, provided the initial material, my analysis process turned that material into a performance script, and audience participation in the form of talk-back sessions after the performance provided documentation for the results of the presentation. I provide data for the fieldwork with journaling and videotaping events in rehearsals and performances, director’s notes, and observations. The participants in this study offered great contributions to the research design and social and cultural contexts were shifted by their action in the research. This participation was analyzed in the context of Action Research (Argyrus, 1985). The resulting findings from the data were compared to anthropological and folkloric theories of performance and style. I was able to create and study a bridge, through performance, between a hearing audience and a marginalized and, therefore, often oppressed Deaf culture. Analysis of the data indicted that this performance bridge was the critical element of potential "cultural sensitivity change" in my study thus addressing the previous gap. The study results also indicate a unique style of leadership by Deaf people that is collaborative in nature yet values the individual. I trust further study into that aspect will indeed adjust the margins of society. Accompanying this dissertation are 52 .mov files of the salons, rehearsals, and performance. The performance/dissertation website is http://www.rit.edu/~lrdnpa/diss/www/home/home.html.

Keywords

performance ethnography; drama; Deaf theater; leadership; cultural identity; ethnographic research

Document number: antioch1166037841. Bookmark this page as
<http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1166037841>.

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