Deaf people in France and Brazil: institutions, (ab)normalities and Corporeality

• Grant number: 24/12637-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: December 12, 2024
• End date: March 11, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Cynthia Andersen Sarti
• Grantee: Cibele Barbalho Assensio
• Supervisor: Andrea Benvenuto
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: École Des Hautes Études En Sciences Sociales, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/06206-6 - Corporealities, gestures and visualities - an ethnography of bilingual schools for the deaf, BP.DR

Abstract

This doctoral internship proposal aims to reflect on the relationships between abnormality/normality and the corporalities present in the French bilingual education environment for the deaf. Throughout my doctoral research, I have sought to understand how subjects experience the environment of educational institutions designed for people with deafness in the city of São Paulo. The central point of investigation has been the process of embodiment of gestures and visuality that characterizes these places occupied by deaf peoples, going through the issue of bodily experience and, from this, I have observed relationships that suggest a certain deaf normality, which displaces what we generally understand as the norm in terms of oral-auditory communication, body handling and perceptions related to the senses. What nuances and similarities could be found in terms of corporeality, gestures and visualities, in a French bilingual education environment for the deaf? How could the theoretical support available in this country on the topic contribute to the understanding of Brazilian deaf corporealities? This internship proposal focuses on these issues, taking as a basis: the French bibliography on the subject available at the National Institute for Deaf Young People (INJS) in Paris, a place where I have already carried out activities during my master's internship (BEPE/Fapesp) and I intend to carry out visits to talk to professionals in the field and students; the dialogue with researchers from the Programe Handcaps et Societés of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (ÉHÉSS) with whom I have been in contact since 2014, when I participated in the Colloque franco-latinoaméricain de recherche sur le handicap, with funding from Fapesp.