Hearing Atmospheres: Toward a Relational Acoustemology

• In Event: Dwelling in the In-Between: Relational and Sensory Turns in Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

This paper reconceptualizes hearing loss as a generative recomposition. By bringing assemblage theory and atmospheric analysis into conversation with posthumanist disability studies and Hard-of-hearing and deaf artists, I offer a framework for “unforgetting” the marginalization of HOH and Deaf ways of listening while imagining futures where hearing, sound, and listening are relational, dynamic, and multisensory. Artistic interventions by Christine Sun Kim and others, including the presenter's autobiographical experiences, foreground tactile, visual, and vibrational modes of sound, offering new pedagogies of perception.This reconfiguration aligns with the conference theme by constructing a new vision for education research—one that honors embodied difference, critiques auditory normativity, and expands the epistemological foundations of sound, learning, and inclusion.

Author

• Kimberly A. Powell, Pennsylvania State University