FAQ: This is IS

“This is IS” is an ethnographic film series created by Annelies Kusters (researcher) and Jorn Rijckaert (camera and editor), consisting of six episodes on the practice and politics of International Sign (IS). It focuses on the uses of International Sign in the context of professional mobility, i.e. how students, teachers, translators, interpreters, performers, presenters, organisers […]


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Deaf mobility and immobility: Who travels and where?

Annelies Kusters, Amandine le Maire, Erin Moriarty (11 May 2021) Note: this video was produced for the course “International Connections and International Sign Among Deaf people”, developed by OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University and Gallaudet University. The term “mobility” signals a movement in a physical space which can be on a small scale as simply walking from one […]


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Calibrating deaf cosmopolitanism [without videos]

Note 1: this blog is based on a longer article: “Deaf cosmopolitanism: Calibrating as a moral process – International Journal of Multilingualism” open access here: LINKNote 2: In another version of this same text linked here, a vlog in IS is included and the quotes referred below are included in the form of videos. All videos […]


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Calibrating deaf cosmopolitanism

Erin Moriarty and Annelies Kusters, 28 February 2021 Note 1: this video was produced for the course “International Connections and International Sign Among Deaf people”, developed by OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University and Gallaudet University”.Note 2: this blog is based on a longer article: “Deaf cosmopolitanism: Calibrating as a moral process – International Journal of […]


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Deaf migration London (webinar video + PPT)

This is the video from a webinar organised on 18 August 2020, with a presentation by MobileDeaf researchers Steven Emery and Sanchayeeta Iyer, followed by a panel discussion with deaf people who had moved to London from Czech Republic, India, Somalia and Sierra Leone. The webinar was organised in British Sign Language, interpreted into International […]


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webinar info

DEAF MIGRATION LONDON ZOOM WEBINAR: Tuesday 18 August 2020, 3-5 pm GMT Research presentation by Steve Emery and Sanchayeeta Iyer       (with photos and film clips) Interactive discussion, Q&A  Language: British Sign Language with interpretation to spoken English and International Sign  You need a password to log in to this session. Register and you will be sent the password. REGISTRATION […]


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“Mingling”: Learning International Sign via immersion versus learning it in class 

Annelies Kusters, 24 February 2020 People often say that International Sign (IS) is something that you only can learn by “mingling” with people from other countries. In other words, you learn it by doing it. Since IS does not have a fixed lexicon, signers learn IS by meeting other signers in international contexts. This includes […]


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