E. Mara Green
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I am a linguistic and sociocultural anthropologist. I advise anthropology and linguistics majors (the latter involves petitioning for a special major, which I'm happy to discuss). I have taught courses on anthropological theory, linguistic anthropology, disability, and South Asia, and I am shaped by deaf, queer, and feminist studies as well.
My work focuses on questions of communication and ethics, asking what it means to understand, and be understood by, others. I am especially interested in how the capacity of people to make meaning together depends as much on a mutual willingness to do so as on shared linguistic resources.
These topics have emerged through long-term fieldwork in Nepal, where I work with deaf people who use Nepali Sign Language (NSL, a conventional language), as well as deaf and hearing people who use natural sign (less conventional signed communicative practices). One of the goals of my writing is to show how the way I think about the phenomena I study owes as much to NSL signers’ own theories of language and sociality as to anthropological and linguistic theory.
I have recently started two new projects, focusing on NSL signers’ experiences as parents and on queer and trans Nepalis’ communicative practices across settings, languages, and modalities. I have also conducted short-term fieldwork in international deaf spaces.
My research incorporates participant observation, video-recordings, interviews, and (on occasion) linguistic elicitation.
I read a great deal of science fiction and fantasy, and always enjoy receiving book recommendations.
Publications
2024. Making Sense: Language, Ethics, and Understanding in Deaf Nepal. University of California Press.
2022. “The Eye and the Other: Language and Ethics in Deaf Nepal.” American Anthropologist 124(1):21-38.
2022. “Thinking with Signs: Caste, Ethnicity, and the Dual Body in Contemporary Eastern Nepal.” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 45(3):440-455.
2017. “Performing Gesture: The Pragmatic Functions of Pantomimic and Lexical Repertoires in a Natural Sign Narrative.” Gesture 16(2): 328-362.
2014. “Building the Tower of Babel: International Sign, Linguistic Commensuration, and Moral Orientation.” Language in Society 43(4):445-465.
2020. Sign Language Ideologies in Practice (co-edited with A. Kusters, E. Moriarty and K. Snoddon). Mouton de Gruyter Press.
2020. “Sign Language Ideologies: Practices and Politics” (with A. Kusters, E. Moriarty, and K. Snoddon). Introduction to Sign Language Ideologies in Practice. Mouton de Gruyter Press.
2016. “Deaf Community: Southern Asia” (with M. Friedner and A. Kusters). In The Deaf Studies Encyclopedia, G. Gertz and P. Boudreault (eds). SAGE Reference.
2016. “Sign Language: Southern Asia” (with M. Morgan). In The Deaf Studies Encyclopedia, G. Gertz and P. Boudreault (eds). SAGE Reference.
2015. “One Language, or Maybe Two: Direct Communication, Understanding, and Informal Interpreting in International Deaf Encounters.” In It’s a Small World: International Deaf Spaces and Encounters, M. Friedner and A. Kusters (eds). Gallaudet University Press. Pp. 70-82.
- Anthropology of Nepal and South Asia
- Deaf anthropology
- Disability anthropology
- Interaction
- Linguistic anthropology
- Ordinary ethics
- Sign language studies
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