An Eye-Widening Experience

Abstract

Open Your Eyes (OYE) is amazingly cohesive in the ways the essays foreshadow and postilluminate (to coin a phrase) issues raised by the others despite the diverse nature of the authors and their essays. Throughout, several primary themes emerge such as the need for Deaf studies as a field to expand and develop a uniquely Deaf ‘‘theory’’, Deafhood and Deaf identity, Deaf spaces, and the issues of Deaf as disability and audism. Humphries opens with an outline of the origins and history of the Deaf studies field, pointing out some issues that were unable to be addressed then but which still resonate today. This historical discussion yields valuable insights to those of us who were not yet born, too young, or had not yet been enculturated into Deaf culture at the time. This brings us to Bechter, who reframes Deaf culture as a ‘‘convert’’ culture that utilizes certain rhetorical and narrative genres to foster a ‘‘conversion’’ process. Bechter’s suggestion that Deaf studies itself needs to expand as a discipline is echoed by Kelly (on Deaf women’s history), Bienvenu (Deaf and gay identities), and Dunn (addressing audism and Deaf education through the lenses of racism and ethnocentrism). Hoffmeister adds another dimension in his powerful description of CODA identity as a Deaf identity, potentially leading to a reconceptualization of Deafhood and the Deaf community. Ladd recapitulates his concept of Deafhood and