Deaf is frequently defined as “loss of hearing” or “lack of the sense of hearing.” As a result, people not familiar with the Deafworld often assume “deaf” refers to nothing more than an inability to hear. Yet, as Deaf activism, cultural production, and scholarship reveals, Deaf is neither a deficit-based concept nor can it be easily reduced to a fixed, and stable experience. Like so many other identity-based categories, Deaf is a complex, fluid, and contestable concept. Deaf, in all its complexity, is at the center of a growing body of texts that can be grouped under the category of Deaf theory.