This dissertation researches negotiations of Belonging within the Deaf community in the territory of present-day Austria since the 19th century. The focus lies on practices concerning the emergence, modification, and rejection of identity constructions under changing political, social, and technological conditions. Drawing on four diachronically structured spotlights—the founding of the Vienna Association for the Deaf, the print medium Taubstummencourier (1885–1904), ambivalent processes of persecution, exclusion and inclusion of d/Deaf individuals during the Nazi era, and debates around hearing aids and cochlear implants as forms of medical enhancement and normative prerequisites for social participation—, the project analyzes moments of Belonging within the history of the Deaf communities in Central Europe. In doing so, the project makes a significant contribution to the history of Belonging and Deaf agency, a field that has thus far only been explored to a limited extent.

Maria Pasaricek is pursuing a doctorate in History at the University of Graz, where she is researching negotiations of Belonging within Deaf communities since the late 19th century. From 2018 to 2024, she studied history and German, with a focus on educational pedagogy, at the University of Graz. In her master’s thesis, which was awarded the Dr. Maria Schaumayer Prize, she analyzed constructions of dis/ability and Deafness using the example of the Graz School for the Deaf. In 2024, she was a research assistant for the project The Forgotten Photo Album. Uncovering the Global Stories Behind the Portraits of Austria-Hungary’s Consular Diplomats at the European University Institute in Florence. From 2024 to 2026, she worked in the Sparkling Science project The Memory of the Classroom: Multidirectional Remembering in Graz Schools at the University of Graz. Her research interests include dis/ability history, Deaf Studies, and memory studies.