Social Research with Deaf People / Our research themes / PhD research

Explore our PhD research projects

Explore the current research projects carried out by doctoral students in SORD.

“Patient Experience, Service Access and Outcomes in Adult Hearing Aid Services for Deaf Adults who use British Sign Language”
Celia Hulme
  • Funded by NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre.
  • Supervised by Professor Alys Young, Professor Kevin Munro and Dr Katherine Rogers.

This project is about British Sign Language users who wear hearing aids and use adult hearing aid services. Anecdotally, there appears to be an increase in the use of hearing aid services and little evidence exists of BSL users’ experiences. This project will collect evidence to identify what makes an effective adult hearing aid service from a BSL user perspective. The results may impact guidelines that will improve service quality, patient satisfaction, impact policies and audiology training.

“An ethnographic study on translanguaging practices and subjectivities of d/Deaf students in a further education college in North England”
Cristián Iturriaga
  • Funded by ANID, Chile’s National Agency for Research and Development.
  • Supervised by Professor Erica Burman, Professor Alys Young and Dr Susie Miles.

This research project studies the translanguaging practices of deaf college students; that is, how they mix different semiotic resources for communication. This includes – but is not limited to – written language, spoken language, signs, fingerspelling, gestures or facial expression. The project also explores the subjective perspective of deaf students on their past language learning trajectories and present experiences as they move across languages and modalities to communicate with different people.

“Deaf parents and safeguarding: cultural linguistic perspectives on parenting assessment process”
Rosemary Oram.
  • Funded by the Economic Social Research Council, ESRC

Funded by the Economic Social Research Council, this case studentship award under SORD involves the exploration of parenting assessments in relation to safeguarding in instances when one or more parent is a Deaf BSL (British Sign Language) user. It is an important recognition of the significance of cultural competence in assessments involving Deaf parents who are more readily regarded as disabled than as minority language users from a recognised cultural community. The research is in partnership with Manchester City Council.

“We don’t know what we don’t know. What should ‘good’ outcomes for families with deaf children & young people look like?”
Jane Russell
  • Funded by ESRC with Blackpool Council Special Educational Needs Department as CASE partner.

This project is developed in part time modality and funded through ESRC with Blackpool Council Special Educational Needs Department as CASE partner. This research uses an autoethnographic methodology to explore how parents understand outcomes. Outcomes is not a term used by parents; the word is introduced to them by professionals because their child is deaf. Knowledges gained through the author’s own autoethnographic writing are used, from narratives authored by other parents and outcomes/deaf child/parentliteratureto inform the own author’s research.

Hearing mothers with deaf children aged 11-23 were interviewed. They were asked to look back and consider how they thought about their deaf child’s future and then how they think about their child’s future in the present.

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