Cochlear implants, mainstreaming, genetic engineering, and other ethical dilemmas  confronting deaf people mandated a new, wide-ranging examination of these issues, fulfilled by Signs and Voices: Deaf Culture, Identity, Language, and Arts. This collection, carefully chosen from the 2004 Signs and Voices Conference, the Presidential Forum on American Sign Language at the Modern Language Association Convention, and other sources, addresses all of the factors now changing the cultural landscape for deaf people. To ensure quality and breadth of knowledge, editors Kristin A. Lingren, Doreen DeLuca, and Donna Jo Napoli selected the work of renowned scholars and performers Shannon Allen, H-Dirksen L. Bauman, Adrian Blue, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, Peter Cook, David P. Corina, Michael Davidson, Kristen Harmon, Tom Humphries, Sotaro Kita,  Heather Knapp, Robert G. Lee, Irene W. Leigh, Kenny Lerner, Carole Neidle, Peter Novak, AslI Özyürek, David M. Perlmutter, Anne Senghas, and Ronnie Wilbur.

Signs and Voices is divided into three sections—Culture and Identity, Language and Literacy, and American Sign Language in the Arts—each of which focuses on a particular set of theoretical and practical concerns. Also, the included DVD presents many of the performances from the Arts section. Taken together, these essays and DVD point to new directions in a broad range of fields, including cognitive science, deaf studies, disability studies, education, linguistics, literary criticism, philosophy, and psychology. This extraordinary showcase of innovative and rigorous cross-disciplinary study will prove invaluable to everyone interested in the current state of the Deaf community.

Kristin A. Lindgren is a Visiting Lecturer in the Writing Program at Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Doreen DeLuca is an RID Certified Interpreter who works in the Philadelphia, PA, and Washington, DC, areas.

Donna Jo Napoli is Professor of Linguistics at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA.

Categories

• Language Arts & Disciplines / Sign Language

Product Details

ISBN: 9781563685750
ISBN-10: 1563685752
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press
Publication Date: December 21st, 2012
Pages: 268
Language: English

"Although some of the chapters in this book are a bit challenging for the naive reader, the information is extremely interesting for a variety of experienced professionals who work with deaf people. And many of these chapters could stand alone as excellent readings for linguistics, translation, Deaf culture, Deaf education, or advanced American Sign Language (ASL) courses. This volume offers us a place to revisit, expand, and update our knowledge. There are new perspectives on old ideas of culture and identity, thorough explanations of the language, and in-depth analyses of artistic expressions."
— Christine Monikowski