Protactile Research Network
Acknowledgments
This book is the product of years of conversations with mentors, peers, students, and colleagues, and could not have been completed without support from my family and friends. My deepest thanks to everyone in the Seattle DeafBlind community, who invited me into their lives, spent time with me, and shared their stories. In particular, I am grateful to my teacher, friend, and colleague Jelica B. Nuccio. I met Jelica when I was an undergraduate student just learning to communicate, and she whipped me into shape. We went on to become close collaborators and her influence on my life and this work has been profound. I am also grateful to aj granda for the many conversations and provocations to think about the problems central to this book. Theresa
B. Smith, Shawn Broderick, and Ellie Savidge were key figures in my edu- cation who painted vivid and compelling pictures of the historical, social, and political dynamics at play in Deaf and DeafBlind communities, which continue to animate my work to this day. I am especially grateful to Theresa Smith for introducing me to the field of linguistic anthropology, for long conversations about language and culture, and for her encouragement and guidance in conducting this research. I am deeply indebted to the members of the Seattle DeafBlind community who participated in this research, the people who offered feedback and encouragement as I learned the language and interpreting skills that made this research possible, and those who shared their memories of the history of the community, as well as their newspaper clippings, notes, boxes of old newsletters, and other critical materials analyzed in this book. I must also thank Vince Nuccio, who has contributed to this work in far too many ways for me to list here, and who has remained a valued friend and interlocutor throughout.
There are several people who contributed to this work as it expanded to include the effects of the protactile movement in Washington, D.C. Robert T. Sirvage and Hansel Bauman let me tag along for months, use their hard hats, look at their blueprints, and generally take up their time. My thinking has changed course as a result of all they taught me. Thank you to Liz Brading, Oscar Chacon, Darla Konkel, Eddie Martinez, Sarah McMillen, Yashaira Romilus, and the participants of the Tactile Mind Collaborative for the stimulating conversations, insights, and collaborations during my time in D.C. I am also grateful to the DeafBlind community members, architects, planners, administrators, and other practitioners of Deaf Space design who participated in this research. Chapter 6 also benefited from discussions at the Theorizing Deaf Geographies workshop at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, hosted by Amandine le Maire, Sanchayeeta Iyer, Annelies Kusters, and Erin Moriarty Harrelson. In addition to the organizers, Dai O’Brien, Joseph Murray, and Mike Gulliver all gave me helpful feedback and shared important insights.
Two individuals who have had a significant effect on my thinking and the arguments presented in this book in various places: the DeafBlind poet, essayist, and researcher, John Lee Clark, whose hands flutter, and Halene Anderson, whose big ideas land with a gentle touch. Their influence crept up on me in the years leading up to the publication of this book and our ongoing dialogue has sustained me in the writing process.
I am grateful to my mentors and colleagues in the places where I studied and worked as this project was taking shape. William F. Hanks, my advisor and mentor at Berkeley, weighed in on countless essays, articles, and presen- tations over the years, introduced me to many of the conceptual frameworks needed to pursue the questions I address in this book, and has been a source of unwavering support as I have begun to find my own way as a scholar. I also left Berkeley with a supportive group of peers and colleagues whom I have been turning to for advice and guidance ever since, especially Joshua Craze, Michele Friedner, E. Mara Green, Bharat Jayram Venkat, Shaylih Muehlmann, and Xochitl Marsilli-Vargas.
I am tremendously thankful for my colleagues in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago, who are supportive, kind, and brilliant. I have come to depend on the quick and insightful feedback that Marisa “Middy” Casillas is willing to give on just about everything I write. I am also grateful for her friendship and the snacks she brings to work. Eugene Raikhel has generously offered his time as a mentor and colleague since my arrival at the University of Chicago, and our conversations have inspired new directions in my thinking. When things fell apart (just as this book was supposed to be coming together), Eman Abdelhadi, Marisa Casillas, Jennifer Cole, Michele Friedner, and Chiara Galli were there for me as colleagues and as friends. I have also benefited immensely from Diane Brentari’s wisdom and intellect as a co-author, co-teacher, co- director, and mentor. Sections of this book were written during our co-taught seminar, “New Perspectives on Language Emergence” taught at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2023 and our collaborations have informed the linguistic analyses presented in the book. My colleagues in Saint Louis also helped shape this book, especially Monica Eppinger, with whom I was in dialogue as the framework for this book was coming together. Amy Cooper and Talia Dan-Cohen each gave excellent feedback on one of the chapters at just the right moment. Finally, thank you to the Linguistics Department at Gallaudet for their support as I conducted this research, especially Paul Dudis, whose questions always kept me thinking in new ways about the relationship between language and context, and to several colleagues who were or had been at Gallaudet who became valued friends and important sources of support, including Deborah Chen-PIchler, Paul Dudis, Joseph Hill, Julie Hochgesang, Ceil Lucas, Deborah Peterson, Miako Rankin, and Emily Shaw. I would never have made it to this point without them.
My fellow linguistic anthropologists have given me generous feedback at conferences, workshops, invited talks, and classes. Special thanks to Constan- tine Nakassis, who has organized numerous workshops, reading groups, and conferences, all of which have been important venues that have shaped my thinking during the final stages of writing this book. Thanks to Constantine and the co-organizers and participants in the metasemiotics club at the University of Chicago; participants in the Design Ideologies workshop, hosted by Constantine Nakassis and Jürgen Spitzmüller, and funded by the University of Chicago, especially Susan Gal, Keith Murphy, Kamala Russell, and Lily Ye, who provided feedback on the final substantive chapter of the book. The participants in John Lee Clark’s Protactile Theory seminar have shared critical insights over the years. Benjamin Lee, Greg Urban, and the members of the Semiotics Group at the Center for Transcultural Studies, especially William Hanks, Miyako Inoue, Paul Kockelman, Kamala Russell, and Kathleen Stew- art provided encouragement, inspiration, and provocation and I am grateful for their influence on this work. Greg Urban also gave me detailed comments on portions of the manuscript that were immensely helpful.
Thank you to Alessandro Duranti for his editorial guidance from start to finish and for his warmth and encouragement along the way. Thanks to Chuck Goodwin for encouraging Sandro and I to work together and for his unflagging support, even when this book was just an idea. The editorial staff at Oxford University Press has also been extremely helpful, including Meredith Keffer, Emily Benitez, Julia Steer and Ponneelan Moorthy, as well as two anonymous reviewers, and thank you to Bob Offer-Westort for his unusual and discerning ability to analyze and evaluate book indexes, and for creating this book’s index.
This research was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthro- pological Research (Grant #8110 and Grant #9146), the National Science Foundation’s Linguistics program (BCS-1651100), and Gallaudet University’s Priority Research grant. The writing phase was supported by funding from Saint Louis University’s Research Institute.
Since the beginning of my graduate training, I have lived in many cities where I have been lucky to find friends, often fellow parents, who kept me sane, made me laugh, and helped me put things into perspective. I’m especially grateful for Denecia Billups, David Downing, Kira Hunter, Felicia and Marius Ionescu, Ebeth Johnson, Kahreen Tebeau, and Cristina Trevizo.
Last but not least, thank you to my parents, Greg and Lorri Edwards, for their love, support, and patience, and for encouraging me to pursue what I love even when it didn’t make very much sense. And thank you to my son, Isaac Redfield who, with all of his unimaginably lovable intersubjective idiosyncrasies, reminds me to appreciate life in new ways every day and inspires me with his determination and commitment to his own passions. I am lucky to have a son like him.
B. Smith, Shawn Broderick, and Ellie Savidge were key figures in my edu- cation who painted vivid and compelling pictures of the historical, social, and political dynamics at play in Deaf and DeafBlind communities, which continue to animate my work to this day. I am especially grateful to Theresa Smith for introducing me to the field of linguistic anthropology, for long conversations about language and culture, and for her encouragement and guidance in conducting this research. I am deeply indebted to the members of the Seattle DeafBlind community who participated in this research, the people who offered feedback and encouragement as I learned the language and interpreting skills that made this research possible, and those who shared their memories of the history of the community, as well as their newspaper clippings, notes, boxes of old newsletters, and other critical materials analyzed in this book. I must also thank Vince Nuccio, who has contributed to this work in far too many ways for me to list here, and who has remained a valued friend and interlocutor throughout.
There are several people who contributed to this work as it expanded to include the effects of the protactile movement in Washington, D.C. Robert T. Sirvage and Hansel Bauman let me tag along for months, use their hard hats, look at their blueprints, and generally take up their time. My thinking has changed course as a result of all they taught me. Thank you to Liz Brading, Oscar Chacon, Darla Konkel, Eddie Martinez, Sarah McMillen, Yashaira Romilus, and the participants of the Tactile Mind Collaborative for the stimulating conversations, insights, and collaborations during my time in D.C. I am also grateful to the DeafBlind community members, architects, planners, administrators, and other practitioners of Deaf Space design who participated in this research. Chapter 6 also benefited from discussions at the Theorizing Deaf Geographies workshop at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, hosted by Amandine le Maire, Sanchayeeta Iyer, Annelies Kusters, and Erin Moriarty Harrelson. In addition to the organizers, Dai O’Brien, Joseph Murray, and Mike Gulliver all gave me helpful feedback and shared important insights.
Two individuals who have had a significant effect on my thinking and the arguments presented in this book in various places: the DeafBlind poet, essayist, and researcher, John Lee Clark, whose hands flutter, and Halene Anderson, whose big ideas land with a gentle touch. Their influence crept up on me in the years leading up to the publication of this book and our ongoing dialogue has sustained me in the writing process.
I am grateful to my mentors and colleagues in the places where I studied and worked as this project was taking shape. William F. Hanks, my advisor and mentor at Berkeley, weighed in on countless essays, articles, and presen- tations over the years, introduced me to many of the conceptual frameworks needed to pursue the questions I address in this book, and has been a source of unwavering support as I have begun to find my own way as a scholar. I also left Berkeley with a supportive group of peers and colleagues whom I have been turning to for advice and guidance ever since, especially Joshua Craze, Michele Friedner, E. Mara Green, Bharat Jayram Venkat, Shaylih Muehlmann, and Xochitl Marsilli-Vargas.
I am tremendously thankful for my colleagues in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago, who are supportive, kind, and brilliant. I have come to depend on the quick and insightful feedback that Marisa “Middy” Casillas is willing to give on just about everything I write. I am also grateful for her friendship and the snacks she brings to work. Eugene Raikhel has generously offered his time as a mentor and colleague since my arrival at the University of Chicago, and our conversations have inspired new directions in my thinking. When things fell apart (just as this book was supposed to be coming together), Eman Abdelhadi, Marisa Casillas, Jennifer Cole, Michele Friedner, and Chiara Galli were there for me as colleagues and as friends. I have also benefited immensely from Diane Brentari’s wisdom and intellect as a co-author, co-teacher, co- director, and mentor. Sections of this book were written during our co-taught seminar, “New Perspectives on Language Emergence” taught at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2023 and our collaborations have informed the linguistic analyses presented in the book. My colleagues in Saint Louis also helped shape this book, especially Monica Eppinger, with whom I was in dialogue as the framework for this book was coming together. Amy Cooper and Talia Dan-Cohen each gave excellent feedback on one of the chapters at just the right moment. Finally, thank you to the Linguistics Department at Gallaudet for their support as I conducted this research, especially Paul Dudis, whose questions always kept me thinking in new ways about the relationship between language and context, and to several colleagues who were or had been at Gallaudet who became valued friends and important sources of support, including Deborah Chen-PIchler, Paul Dudis, Joseph Hill, Julie Hochgesang, Ceil Lucas, Deborah Peterson, Miako Rankin, and Emily Shaw. I would never have made it to this point without them.
My fellow linguistic anthropologists have given me generous feedback at conferences, workshops, invited talks, and classes. Special thanks to Constan- tine Nakassis, who has organized numerous workshops, reading groups, and conferences, all of which have been important venues that have shaped my thinking during the final stages of writing this book. Thanks to Constantine and the co-organizers and participants in the metasemiotics club at the University of Chicago; participants in the Design Ideologies workshop, hosted by Constantine Nakassis and Jürgen Spitzmüller, and funded by the University of Chicago, especially Susan Gal, Keith Murphy, Kamala Russell, and Lily Ye, who provided feedback on the final substantive chapter of the book. The participants in John Lee Clark’s Protactile Theory seminar have shared critical insights over the years. Benjamin Lee, Greg Urban, and the members of the Semiotics Group at the Center for Transcultural Studies, especially William Hanks, Miyako Inoue, Paul Kockelman, Kamala Russell, and Kathleen Stew- art provided encouragement, inspiration, and provocation and I am grateful for their influence on this work. Greg Urban also gave me detailed comments on portions of the manuscript that were immensely helpful.
Thank you to Alessandro Duranti for his editorial guidance from start to finish and for his warmth and encouragement along the way. Thanks to Chuck Goodwin for encouraging Sandro and I to work together and for his unflagging support, even when this book was just an idea. The editorial staff at Oxford University Press has also been extremely helpful, including Meredith Keffer, Emily Benitez, Julia Steer and Ponneelan Moorthy, as well as two anonymous reviewers, and thank you to Bob Offer-Westort for his unusual and discerning ability to analyze and evaluate book indexes, and for creating this book’s index.
This research was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthro- pological Research (Grant #8110 and Grant #9146), the National Science Foundation’s Linguistics program (BCS-1651100), and Gallaudet University’s Priority Research grant. The writing phase was supported by funding from Saint Louis University’s Research Institute.
Since the beginning of my graduate training, I have lived in many cities where I have been lucky to find friends, often fellow parents, who kept me sane, made me laugh, and helped me put things into perspective. I’m especially grateful for Denecia Billups, David Downing, Kira Hunter, Felicia and Marius Ionescu, Ebeth Johnson, Kahreen Tebeau, and Cristina Trevizo.
Last but not least, thank you to my parents, Greg and Lorri Edwards, for their love, support, and patience, and for encouraging me to pursue what I love even when it didn’t make very much sense. And thank you to my son, Isaac Redfield who, with all of his unimaginably lovable intersubjective idiosyncrasies, reminds me to appreciate life in new ways every day and inspires me with his determination and commitment to his own passions. I am lucky to have a son like him.
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