Entre sinais e palavras: a construção identitária de surdos acadêmicos na UFRN

Abstract

Situated in the field of Applied Linguistics, my objective is to investigate the identity construction of deaf individuals who have graduated from the Bachelor's Degree in Libras/Brazilian Sign Language and Portuguese Language (CLLP) at UFRN. The data I analyze, which consists of concrete utterances in Libras from three deaf individuals, comes from the second class of the extension project titled "Ser Acadêmico", conducted in 2021. This project was aimed at veteran students and alumni of the CLLP program, with the purpose of discussing academic life and studying how academic discourse genres are constructed. I conduct the analysis of these utterances using the philosophical notions of Bakhtin's Circle on language as analytical framework and theoretical references related to deaf identity and its constructions in today's world, such as Deaf Studies and Cultural Studies. In the first stage of analysis, I aimed to identify how the subjects evaluate the discourse practices of teaching and learning they have participated in throughout their lives in their narratives about their academic experiences. It becomes evident that: (i) in their experiences in the school environment, the discourse emphasizes the challenges they faced regarding linguistic accessibility; (ii) in their experiences in higher education, each of the three subjects highlights different aspects in their discourse: Nelson narrates his journey from being a freshman to becoming a professor in the program that formed him; Rodrigo focuses on his experience as a scholarship recipient; Gladis presents the differences between her first and second undergraduate degrees (Pedagogy and CLLP, respectively); (iii) when it comes to postgraduate studies, the utterances underscore the importance of Libras in accessing this level of education. In the second part of the analysis, I delve into the positions taken by the subjects regarding Libras and Portuguese Language in a discussion that took place during the class. In the complex interplay between these two languages, influenced by both centripetal and centrifugal forces, it is evident that in the deaf academic community: (i) there is a perception that throughout deaf history (individually and collectively), the imposition of Portuguese Language on deaf individuals symbolizes oppression of hearing culture over deaf culture; (ii) there is an awareness that proficiency in Portuguese Language empowers deaf individuals; (iii) there is recognition that the reach of Libras in the predominantly hearing and grapho-phonocentric society is still limited; and (iv) there is an active desire for academia to genuinely consider Libras as a legitimate language for the construction and dissemination of scientific knowledge