Dr Theresia Hofer

My research and publications engage with social and medical processes, and with (sign) language use, in Tibetan areas of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the wider Himalayan and South Asian region, as well increasingly, in East Asia, where I am currently developing new research and collaborations in Japan. My theoretical and methodological expertise lies in social, medical and linguistic anthropology, and I study how local and global aspects of disability intersect in the day-to-day with ideas about and the lived experiences of disability. My approach to the study of disability is not one that highlights biological tragedy, but instead diverse experiences of being human, mediated and shaped socially, linguistically and politically.

My research interests include the anthropology of disability and difference; critical global health; Asian medicines; gender; nationalism, ethnicity and identity; deaf anthropology, sign linguistics and language-focused methods; oral history; museum anthropology and collaborative, applied and visual research methodologies