College English - Volume 59, Issue 6, 1997

Describes a doctoral student’s experience of studying the deaf or hearing culture from the standpoint of her life and work as a hard-of-hearing person. Discusses the student’s (almost) passing in and among the “D/deaf and H/hearing” worlds.

Proposes some ground rules for principled debating and then, from the standpoint of a leftist, evaluates two conservative critiques (Lynne Cheney’s “Telling the Truth” and John Wilson’s “The Myth of Political Correctness”) of academia in light of these ground rules.