Tribute for Dr. Jon Henner
Alex (Daily Moth): Dr. Jon Henner, who was a Deaf professor at the University of North Carolina: Greensboro and a respected researcher on linguistics and deaf education, passed away on August 14 after a six-year battle with cancer. He was 40.
One of his best-known quotes is, “How you language is beautiful. Don’t let anyone tell you your languaging is wrong. Your language is the story of your life.”
[Image from RIT’s #DeafScientist #DeafResearcher series showing an image of Dr. Henner with the aforementioned quote] Credit: RIT / PLAY Lab
I reached out to Emily Carrigan, who was married to Jon for 10 years. They met at a conference in Boston.
Emily Carrigan: I watched him present as an MC at the conference. He did something that he always did, roll up his sleeves. I was fascinated. Oh, hello!
Alex: You had an attraction.
Emily: Yes. We talked more and he invited me to a gathering with other deaf people later that night. And the rest is history.
Alex: They had three children together, who are now 16, 8, and 3 years old.
Emily: He did an amazing job with the kids. He was supportive. He loved being home with them. When he was home with them, he could enjoy just sitting on the couch watching TV. He wasn’t the type that played a lot with the kids, but he would talk with them, interact, and play games. He was a wonderful father and I know they miss him.
Alex: Emily said in 2005, Jon noticed there was a 2-centimeter mole in the back of his leg that had a strange color. He was a college student at the time and he had the mole removed. Emily said Jon was young and was in between colleges and just didn’t have a follow-up appointment with a doctor to check on the mole. Life went on as normal. In 2017, Jon found out that he had cancer.
Emily: In 2017, he had swelling in his lymph nodes. He noticed it when he was walking and it caused him pain. He went and had one removed and then he found out he had cancer. So he took more tests and scans and found out more things. That was the only other time I remember feeling as scared as I did at the end. We didn’t know what to do. I felt like from 2017 to recently, Jon was always rolling up his sleeves. He was like, “Okay. This is what we’ll do, we’ll fight it.” He had moments of sadness. He was scared, obviously, and he did express that. Each time the cancer came back or became worse, he would have moments but then he’d roll up his sleeves again. I told him that it was amazing that he could do that. He said, “What else am I supposed to do? Die?” He never wanted to stop fighting. He always wanted to stay with his family. To keep on doing things, he had so much to do.
Alex: In August, a tumor developed in Jon’s throat area. He was hospitalized and doctors broke the news that he didn’t have much time left. Jon’s family and friends were able to visit him before he passed away.
Emily said Jon’s body was cremated and that it was his wish for his remains to become a part of a tree, so he could give the world oxygen.
There are many tributes from the Deaf community, especially the Deaf academic community, mourning Jon’s passing and praising his powerful work as a researcher and educator.
Emily: He had strong opinions about how he thought people’s approach to Deaf Education was lacking. He did make some enemies, well not exactly enemies, but he did upset people sometimes with how he confronted their work. It was because it was his instinct. He experienced the impact himself and he saw it on other people. I think he felt so strongly. He didn’t want to do it nicely. It’s not the time to be nice, Deaf kids are being harmed right now by stupid ideas. They aren’t considering the impact.
Alex: I reached out to Dr. Octavian Robinson, who is an associate professor at Gallaudet’s Department of Deaf Studies, to provide insights into who Dr. Henner was.
Dr. Octavian Robinson: Jon and I worked together for about eight years. In those eight years, we collaborated on approximately 10 projects. I say approximately because our last project was almost completed. It’s now in the middle. We have been working together on this book for a little over a year. This book was submitted to the university press on the same day that he passed away. It was my duty to submit it so I sent it and then I found out that he was gone. I CC'd him and I was puzzled on why he didn’t give a happy reaction and then I realized it was because he passed away.
One thing that I really appreciate about him is that he was a very supportive colleague. If you ask or chat with people who he worked with or supported or mentored — there are a lot of people, both deaf and not deaf. He was a mentor, sometimes he would do little things like send a tweet to say he was excited about their work, and that he couldn’t wait for it to be published. Jon would also give parents advice. Cooking tips. He also gave advice on how to have balance in life for new PhD students. It was so varied and there were a lot of people that he was willing to support and mentor. Many people asked him to collaborate, for him to work with them. He would be willing. Those who were junior scholars, new scholars, and new people in the academic world, Jon would embrace them. He accepted a lot of invitations to collaborate with them and he was very supportive and helped people learn how to write, how to navigate the process of publishing a work, the peer review process.
Alex: There will be a celebration of life event in Greensboro on October 14 in honor of Jon. Emily said they want it to be a good time where people can gather, have drinks, and share memories. She said masks will be required in indoor spaces.
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Alex: Dr. Robinson and Dr. Henner created an impactful concept called crip linguistics. Here is an explainer.
Dr. Robinson: Crip linguistics is basically… I love Jon’s quote, “There is motherfucking dignity in all ways of languaging.”
[Image showing Dr. Henner’s tweet, “There. Is. Motherfucking. Dignity. In. All. Ways. Of. Languaging.” Credit: X/Twitter/@jmhenner
Dr. Robinson: We notice that the world expects people to express themselves all in basically the same way. Through verbal speech. Speech “should” sound a certain way, it must look a certain way, and so forth. But our perspective is that language comes out of the body itself. Our bodies are not all the same, so that means our bodies will affect the ways we express ourselves. It will affect the ways that people perceive our words. That is often influenced by our image of what a body should be able to do. “All bodies should be able to speak. All bodies should be able to pronounce words in specific ways. All bodies should speak at a certain speed, to not be slow or fast, but it should…” So there is like a checklist of all the “shoulds” to conform. But our perspective is that since our bodies are varied, it means how we express ourselves will also be varied. We need to start thinking about language, not as something that should or can be standardized but rather as something that we do. It’s like breathing and walking. Is there a “right” way to breathe or walk? It’s the same thing. Is there a right way or wrong way to language? No. The way we language is our humanity. It is actually our obligation to learn how to be better listeners.
Alex: Dr. Robinson said Dr. Henner will continue to have an impact on the world through the research he did.
Tributes:
https://soe.uncg.edu/soe-mourns-passing-of-dr-jon-henner/
https://www.aaal.org/news/in-memoriam-jon-henner
https://twitter.com/NTIDplaylab/status/1699099997877264474/photo/1
GoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/jons-fight-with-stage-4-metastatic-melanoma
Dr. Henner’s website: