An ethnographer with extensive fieldwork experience in Cambodia and Indonesia, Erin Moriarty researches the intersection of mobility and languaging practices, focusing on deaf linguistic practices in transnational settings as they shape and are shaped by language ideologies. Her work examines language use, translanguaging, sign language documentation and the socio-cultural dynamics within deaf communities. 

Moriarty’s scholarly contributions include the recent co-edited volume, Deaf Mobility Studies: Exploring International Networks, Tourism, and Migration, published by Gallaudet Press, and notable articles include “Deaf Cosmopolitanism: Calibrating as a Moral Process”; “Filmmaking in a Linguistic Ethnography of Deaf Tourist Encounters”; and “‘Sign to me, not the children’: Ideologies of language contamination at a deaf tourist site in Bali.” Additionally, she has produced an ethnographic film, #DeafTravel: Deaf Tourism in Bali. Her research has been supported by fellowships and awards, including a Fulbright–National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship and a recent award from the NEH to reimagine deaf studies for the future.  

For her dissertation, Moriarty documented the experiences of deaf people in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, their languaging practices and the development of Cambodian Sign Language by NGOs.  

Moriarty earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from American University, her M.A. in communications in contemporary society from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in art history and anthropology from Smith College. She has held a post-doctoral appointment at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, with the MobileDeaf research team, a 5-year European Research Council-funded project and recently was associate professor in deaf studies at Gallaudet University. 

This year, Moriarty Harrelson plans to continue her research on the impact of language ideologies on deaf communities and their languaging practices. She is currently completing an edited collection on Crip Linguistics, and she will be teaching courses on Deaf Mobility Studies, Crip Linguistics and the intersections of technology and disability.