Secret Permenter

BA History and Political Science, Hope College

MA History, Purdue

 

Secret Permenter is a first-generation graduate student and the very first in her family to pursue a doctoral degree.

Her research interests explore the intersection of race and disability nineteenth and twentieth century United States disability history with a particular interest in the history of cultural Deafness and its development. Her other interests include the histories of Deafness in wartime, Segregated Deaf Education, and medical “cures” for Deafness.

Her master’s thesis research focuses on how factors such as race, place, and socioeconomic and educational opportunities affected the development of United States Deaf subcultures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, namely the Black Deaf and Martha’s Vineyard Deaf communities.

Aside from this research, Secret is active in both the Department of History and the University as a whole. She has served as the department’s Senator for the Purdue Graduate Student Government (PGSG), as a Representative at Large for the History Graduate Student Association (HGSA), as Senate Clerk for the Purdue Graduate Student Senate, and as the Grant Review and Allocation Committee (GRAC) Chair for PGSG. She was also on the development team for the Institute for Information Literacy’s Student Partners for Information Research and Literacy (SPIRaL) Undergraduate Research program.

When she is not studying, conducting research, or working with PGSG, Secret enjoys traveling, hiking, painting, and playing video games.