Figure 3.1. Anthony Buscato and his group “Tribe” evidence Deaf leadership in the natural setting of a poetry performance at Wallace Library at Rochester Institute of Technology. For my study, I maintained a naturalistic Deaf cultural setting as well.

Position in the Philosophy and Theory of Science

The philosophy behind the ethnographic approach to this study is based in Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work. Since there have been few studies to date on Deaf leadership styles, the question for this dissertation on “whether theater can reveal a Deaf leadership style” is an open-ended question with no assumed answer. This type of questioning is comparable to the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, who establishes his phenomenology on the primacy of perception. Merleau-Ponty (1962) says the phenomenologist returns “to the world which precedes [scientific description], [the world] of which science always speaks, and in relation to which every scientific The philosophy behind the ethnographic approach to this study is based in Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work. Since there have been few studies to date on Deaf leadership styles, the question for this dissertation on “whether theater can reveal a Deaf leadership style” is an open-ended question with no assumed answer. This type of questioning is comparable to the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, who establishes his phenomenology on the primacy of perception. Merleau-Ponty (1962) says the phenomenologist returns “to the world which precedes [scientific description], [the world] of which science always speaks, and in relation to which every scientific characterization is an abstract and derivative sign language as is geography in relation to the countryside” (p. 21). [more]