The Impact of Gay Social Networking Applications on Dating in the Deaf Gay Community

Dating between Deaf gay men who are American Sign Language (ASL) users and hearing gay men who use spoken language has historically been a challenge, creating a binary in Deaf-hearing relationships. The dating game has been revolutionized by the creation of geo-social networking (GSN) apps, where people communicate through the medium of written English and digital photographs. Furthermore, GSN apps have created a network for meeting other men who identify as Deaf and gay, as well as revealing the existence of a sexual fetish for Deaf partners. The main research question driving this investigation is: What are the impacts of gay GSN apps upon the dating and mating rituals of Deaf gay men in the United States? Using Grounded Theory Methodology, findings indicate that GSN apps have lifted previously-encountered communication barriers between Deaf and hearing men, creating a causeway for communication that gives rise to increased comfort, but leads to an increase in rejection based on being Deaf

“What i see when my eyes fall out”: anticipations, intensifications, immediacies, and transitions of identity construction, affect design, and movement building in digital spaces

This thesis project explores how social media intervenes in and co-constructs spaces, affects, communities, and identities. I demonstrate how autobiography through social media constrains, expands, automates, normalizes, and surveils us as we write, post, and share ourselves into a profoundly communal existence. I argue that social media guides our experiences and understandings of gender, race, class, and (dis)ability — by incorporating queer theory, feminist autobiography, disability justice, and narrative therapy frameworks, I recall how I have storied my life and how my life has been storied for me online over the past 20 years to curate a mad auto ethnography of social media profiles. This thesis brings together multiple interdisciplinary theoretical fields and works within emergent methodologies rooted in disability justice and madness liberation to give a surrealist sense of space and emotion reflected in both the mania of insanity and the rush of social media experience. By doing so, I demonstrate and reveal how social media impacts identities and communities via new sensations characterized by anticipation, intensification, immediacy, and transition

Mediated Mate Selection And Courtship: The Lived Experience Of Muslim American Women In Using Online Matchmaking Websites

This thesis examines how technology affects two major components of courtship among Muslim American women: (1) mate selection and (2) cross-gender interactions between Muslim men and women. Sixteen individuals who self-identify as Muslim American women who are active users of online matchmaking websites participated in interviews conducted through Skype about their online dating experience. Qualitative data analysis suggests that these women balance the perceived advantages of online dating (e.g., increased individual agency in initiating romantic relationships) with their desire to maintain traditional cultural and religious courtship practices. This study contributes towards a deeper understanding of CMC and online dating among Muslim American women, and gives insights into the nature of technological change and adaptation in society more generally

Persons with disability negotiating their sexualities

MA Thesis: Anthropology February 2015This ethnographic study looks at how disabled youth in two locations, the University of Witwatersrand and a wheelchair basketball team in Johannesburg, form and negotiate intimate relationships. This is explored by regarding different types of disabilities in order to capture different experiences that different ‘persons with disabilities,’ with different bodies have when it comes to exercising and performing their sexualities. The study finds that the environment that an individual is exposed to plays a contributing role in how one tackles issues of intimacy. Hence, this study explores the role played by exposure by looking into groups of disabled people from different environments: university students and wheelchair basketball players as informants give different kinds of feedback which is highly influenced by the kinds of exposures they face on a daily basis. These two groups of youth help clarify the analysis of different experiences and different disabilities without making generalization about the disabled population in general. This is done in consideration of the South African context where diversity is a rich concept and therefore needs to be acknowledged in understanding how persons with disabilities negotiate their sexualities

Persons with disability negotiating their sexualities

MA Thesis: Anthropology February 2015This ethnographic study looks at how disabled youth in two locations, the University of Witwatersrand and a wheelchair basketball team in Johannesburg, form and negotiate intimate relationships. This is explored by regarding different types of disabilities in order to capture different experiences that different ‘persons with disabilities,’ with different bodies have when it comes to exercising and performing their sexualities. The study finds that the environment that an individual is exposed to plays a contributing role in how one tackles issues of intimacy. Hence, this study explores the role played by exposure by looking into groups of disabled people from different environments: university students and wheelchair basketball players as informants give different kinds of feedback which is highly influenced by the kinds of exposures they face on a daily basis. These two groups of youth help clarify the analysis of different experiences and different disabilities without making generalization about the disabled population in general. This is done in consideration of the South African context where diversity is a rich concept and therefore needs to be acknowledged in understanding how persons with disabilities negotiate their sexualities

Embedding and Sustaining Inclusive Practice to Support Disabled Students in Online and Blended Learning.

UK higher education data has shown persistent differences in degree outcomes for specific student groups. Consequently, the Office for Students (the UK government’s higher education regulator) are funding 17 projects to address these inequalities. Building on its expertise, our institution is leading the IncSTEM project alongside colleagues from two other universities, to evaluate, scale up and promote inclusive teaching and learning practice within Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines in higher education. There are challenges with inclusive distance learning, many of which are emphasised in STEM through the prevalence of practical and field activities, the widespread use of groupwork, and the use of text that is rich in symbolic notation. Online and blended learning approaches, including access to digital learning resources, bring opportunities for more inclusive practice, but can also lead to unforeseen and unquantified barriers for students. Integrating an inclusive approach to teaching and learning requires universities to embed and sustain practices that consider the diverse needs of students throughout curriculum design and delivery, bringing benefits to all students. In this paper, we present data on staff perceptions and practices regarding accessibility and inclusion for disabled students, explore examples of inclusive practice, and discuss how these can be applied by practitioners in order to create a higher education environment in which students of all backgrounds and characteristics are able to succeed

Getting It: The ADA After Thirty Years

On the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this essay examines the vital role that attitudes have played — and will play — in the success of this pathbreaking civil rights law. Drawing on the legacy of the late disability philosopher and bioethicist Adrienne Asch, the essay argues that the law alone cannot bring about the change that’s needed in the United States to realize the ADA’s promise. Attitudes to disability need to change. More people need to “get it” with regard to disability. The essay puts forward an updated account of what it means to get it and charts a path for shaping attitudes through law and other means in the years ahead

Autism, Sexuality, and BDSM

This paper will explore the following areas in which idiosyncratic, sensitive and intense autistic ways of being result in patterns of sexual behavior and reasons autistic people may be particularly drawn to BDSM: 1) autistic sensorimotor intensity promotes non-normative movement, including sadomasochistic, patterns of movement 2) the autistic preference for literal and concrete language matches the BDSM culture’s norms of explicit verbal consent 3) idiosyncratic autistic attention fits will with opportunities within BDSM for developing a long-term career of learning and deep engagement. 4) the double empathy problem results in marginalization of autistic people from mainstream society while BDSM communities can offer norms better suited to autistic people