Mette Sommer Lindsay is a deaf sociologist and researcher originally from Denmark, currently serving as an Assistant Professor in Languages and Intercultural Studies within the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. Her scholarly work is rooted in Deaf and Disability Studies, with a focus on employment sociology, minority entrepreneurship, and the lived experiences of Deaf individuals in various social contexts, including higher education and business ownership.
Academic Position
She holds the position of Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt University in the School of Social Sciences, specifically within the Languages & Intercultural Studies department[1][2]
Research Interests and Contributions
Her principal interests lie in Deaf and Disability Studies, particularly examining how Deaf people navigate labor markets structured by audist and ableist norms[1].
In February 2022, Mette completed her PhD at Heriot-Watt University. Her thesis draws on Bourdieu’s framework of social and cultural capital and the concept of audism. Through interviews and observations of nine Deaf business owners and their employees, Mette demonstrated how Deaf entrepreneurs use different strategies depending on whether they serve hearing or Deaf markets. Her research highlights how Deaf-run businesses can transform Deafness from perceived disadvantage into an asset[3].
Impact
Mette Sommer Lindsay brings invaluable strengths to the field:
- Embodied Insight: As a Deaf sociologist, she combines academic rigor with lived experience, enriching her analyses of Deaf realities.
- Theoretical Innovation: Her use of Bourdieu’s capital framework and the concept of audism offers nuanced, structural understandings of Deaf entrepreneurship.
- Practical Relevance: Through projects like Unmasking educational inequalities, she engages with timely societal challenges, like pandemic-era support for Deaf higher-education students.
- signs.hw.ac.uk. (n.d.). Dr. Mette Sommer Lindsay.
- Heriot-Watt Research Portal. (n.d.). Mette Sommer Lindsay · Assistant Professor, School of Social Sciences, Languages & Intercultural Studies.
- Lindsay, M. S. (2022). Deaf business owners’ experiences of and strategies in navigating an audist normative structured labour market in Denmark (Doctoral dissertation, Heriot-Watt University).
