Over the past decade, a significant body of work on the topic of deaf identities has emerged. In this volume, Leigh and O'Brien bring together scholars from a wide range of disciplines -- anthropology, counseling, education, literary criticism, practical religion, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and deaf studies -- to examine deaf identity paradigms.
In this book, contributing authors describe their perspectives on what deaf identities represent, how these identities develop, and the ways in which societal influences shape these identities. Intersectionality, examination of medical, educational, and family systems, linguistic deprivation, the role of oppressive influences, the deaf body, and positive deaf identity development, are among the topics examined in the quest to better understand deaf identities. In reflection, contributors have intertwined both scholarly and personal perspectives to animate these academic debates. The result is a book that reinforces the multiple ways in which deaf identities manifest, empowering those whose identity formation is influenced by being deaf or hard of hearing.

Irene W. Leigh is Professor Emerita of Psychology at Gallaudet University. As a life-long deaf individual, parent of two children (one deaf and one hearing), and a psychologist specializing in services to deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, her research interests cover the measurement of depression among deaf people, identity and multiculturalism, parenting, parent-child attachment, and cochlear implants. She is a former Associate Editor for the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA). She has received various awards for her work, including the APA Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology's Distinguished Contributions Award and ADARA's Boyce R. Williams Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Field.
Catherine A. O'Brien is Associate Professor at Gallaudet University. She began her career as a science, special education, and physical education teacher, and she received her doctoral degree in 2011 in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Missouri. At Gallaudet, she spent two years as the first I. King Jordan Chair Fellow, studying five schools for the deaf to expand her research base. Her research interests include school culture, culturally relevant leadership, principal preparation, deaf culture, social justice, and improving educational outcomes for deaf children. Her work has been published in numerous journals and edited volumes.

Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Deaf Identities: A Maturing Framework
Irene W. Leigh
Chapter 2. Sociological Perspectives on Deaf Identities
Leala Holcomb, Thomas Horejes, Joseph Santini, and Oscar Ocuto
Chapter 3. Identity, Ethics and the Deaf Community
Teresa Blankmeyer Burke
Chapter 4. Religion and Deaf Identity
Noah Buchholz and Rabbi Darby Jared Leigh
Chapter 5. Lessons Learned: How Studying Cochlear Implantation Reveals the Context in Which d/Deaf Identities Are Formed
Laura Mauldin
Chapter 6. The Impact of Identity on Culturally Responsive School Leadership: Leaders of Schools and Programs for the Deaf
Catherine A. O'Brien
Chapter 7. The Body as a Canvas: Developing a Deaf Bodily Habitus in Deaf Signing Preschools
Patrick Graham and Joseph Tobin
Chapter 8. Identity Positioning and Languaging in Deaf-Hearing Worlds: Some Insights from Studies of Segregated and Mainstream Educational Settings
Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta
Chapter 9. Minimizing the Impact of Language Deprivation and Limited Access to Role Models on Deaf Identity Development in Children and Adults: Global Perspectives for Positive Change
Goedele A.M. De Clerck and Debbie Golos
Chapter 10. Intersectionality- Beyond the Individual: A Look into Cultural Identity Development of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children of Multicultural "Hearing" Families
Cheryl Wu and Nancy Grant
Chapter 11. Stories in the Building of Deaf Identity: The Potential of Storytelling to Enhance Deaf Flourishing and Well-Being
Goedele De Clerck
Chapter 12. Examining the Intersectionality of Deaf Identity, Race/Ethnicity, and Diversity through a Black Deaf Lens
Lindsay Moeletsi Dunn and Glenn B. Anderson
Chapter 13. Deaf and Queer at the Intersections: Deaf LGBTQ People and Communities
Cara A. Miller and Kyle Amber Clark
Chapter 14. On (Always) Passing
Brenda Jo Brueggemann
Chapter 15. In Between Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk: Crises of Collage, Mutating Identities, and Collective Subjectivities
Joseph Michael Valente
Chapter 16. Looking through the Kaleidoscope: A Metaphor for Convergences of Identities
Denise Thew Hackett
Chapter 17. Concluding Thoughts: Expanding the Frontier
Catherine A. O'Brien and Irene W. Leigh
Endnotes