Aron Marie

ARON SEEGERS MARIE, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, received funding in October 2018 to aid research on ‘Two subjects, one voice?; The everyday ethics of voice in sign language interpreting in H’ N_i, Vi_t Nam’ supervised by Dr. Michele Friedner. This dissertation, (renamed ‘Sharing Voice: The Interdependence of Sign Language Interpreting and Deaf Activism in H’ N__i, Vi__t Nam’) examines how deaf people and sign language interpreters creatively and interdependently use language to construct public representations of themselves and each other. The slogan ‘Nothing About Us Without Us,’ captures one of the core tenets of disability movements: the right to engage in self advocacy. Yet for deaf signing people in Vi_t Nam (and most elsewhere), having a ‘voice’ to engage in self advocacy requires the use of sign language interpreters. At the same time, interpreters depend on deaf activists to advocate for the growth of interpreting as interpreting is not recognized as a professiion by the Vietnamese state. The dissertation asks: how do deaf people and interpreters in Vi_t Nam debate, imagine, create, and inhabit new ethical norms around voicing and self-advocacy? Sharing Voice examines how norms of Vietnamese political speech and international self-advocacy politics present barriers for interdependent voices like deaf people and sign language interpreters. The book complicates theories of power by showing how allies and professionals who work with disabled people can be rendered precarious through their work. Finally, the dissertation draws inspiration from the creative work of deaf people and interpreters in H’ N_i, Vi_t Nam to imagine how we can build more sustainable futures for both disabled people and their allies.