Deaf Studies & American Sign Language

The time has come for a new in-depth encyclopedic collection of entries defining the current state of Deaf Studies at an international level using critical and intersectional lenses encompassing the field. The emergence of Deaf Studies programs at colleges and universities and the broadened knowledge of social sciences (including but not limited to Deaf History, Deaf Culture, Signed Languages, Deaf Bilingual Education, Deaf Art, and more) have served to expand the activities of research, teaching, analysis, and curriculum development.  The field has experienced a major shift due to increasing awareness of Deaf Studies research since the mid-1960s. The field has been further influenced by the Deaf community's movement, resistance, activism and politics worldwide, as well as the impact of technological advances, such as in communications, with cell phones, computers, and other devices.   This new Encyclopedia shifts focus away from the medical model that has view deaf individuals as needing to be remedied in order to correct so-called hearing and speaking deficiencies for the sole purpose of assimilation into mainstream society. The members of deaf communities are part of a distinct cultural and linguistic group with a unique, vibrant community, and way of being.   As precedence, The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia carves out a new and critical perspective that breathes meaning into organic deaf experiences through a new critical theory lens.  Such a focus is novel in that it comes from deaf and hearing allies of the communities where historically, institutions of medicine and disability ride roughshod over authentic experiences.

Language development, and the challenges it can present for individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, have long been a focus of research, theory, and practice in D/deaf studies and deaf education. Over the past 150 years, but most especially near the end of the 20th and beginning of the21st century, advances in the acquisition and development of language competencies and skills have been increasing rapidly.This volume addresses many of those accomplishments as well as remaining challenges and new questions that have arisen from multiple perspectives: theoretical, linguistic, social-emotional, neuro-biological, and socio-cultural. The contributors comprise an international group of prominent scholarsand practitioners from a variety of academic and clinical backgrounds. The result is a volume that addresses, in detail, current knowledge, emerging questions, and innovative educational practice in a variety of contexts. The volume takes on topics such as discussion of the transformation of effortsto identify a "best" language approach (the "sign" versus "speech" debate) to a stronger focus on individual strengths, potentials, and choices for selecting and even combining approaches; the effects of language on other areas of development as well as effects from other domains on language itself;and how neurological, socio-cognitive, and linguistic bases of learning are leading to more specialized approaches to instruction that address the challenges that remain for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. This volume both complements and extends The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies and DeafEducation, Volumes 1 and 2, going further into the unique challenges and demands for deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals than any other text and providing not only compilations of what is known but setting the course for investigating what is still to be learned.

The Deaf History Reader presents nine masterful chapters that bring together a remarkably vivid depiction of the varied Deaf experience in America. This collection features the finest scholarship from a noteworthy group of historians, including Reginald Boyd, Barry A. Crouch, Mary French, Brian H. Greenwald, Harlan Lane, Harry G. Lang, Kent R. Olney, Richard Pillard, Jill Hendricks Porco, Michael Reis, and volume editor John Vickrey Van Cleve. The incisive articles collected here include an exploration of the genesis of the Deaf community and early evidence of the use of sign language; a comparison of a failed, oralist school for deaf students in Virginia to the success of the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut; the development of Deaf consciousness among people who carried a dominant gene for deafness; a biographical sketch of Mary Ann Walworth Booth, an accomplished deaf woman who lived on the Western frontier; an account of Deaf agency in the Indiana Institution and the Evansville Day School; the early antecedents of mainstreaming deaf children despite the objections of their parents; a profile of Alexander Graham Bell that contrasts his support of eugenics to his defense of Deaf rights; the conflicting actions of supervisors of the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf; and finally, the critical role played by deaf people in the Chicago Mission for the Deaf's success in maintaining the Deaf community for more than five decades. The remarkably rich range of topics treated in The Deaf History Reader assure its future status as a standard resource for all Deaf scholars and students.

How does Deaf culture fit into education, psychology, cultural studies, technology and the arts? Deaf Culture: Exploring Deaf Communities in the United States addresses this through both theoretical and practical information. With the recognition of American Sign Language (ASL) as a bona fide language, the perception of Deaf people has evolved into the recognition of a vibrant Deaf culture centered around the use of signed languages and communities of Deaf people. This text also describes how rapid advances in technology, including the Internet as well as new visual and auditory technologies, have not only created opportunities for Deaf people to influence how technology can be used, but additionally has become a powerful force in influencing the behavior of Deaf individuals within diverse national and international societies. This has created opportunities for incorporating diversity and international perspectives into Deaf culture. Within each chapter are multiple vignettes, examples, pictures, and stories to enhance content interest for readers and facilitate instructor teaching. Theories are introduced and explained in a practical and reader-friendly manner to ensure understanding, and clear examples are provided to illustrate concepts. In addition, students of American Sign Language and Deaf Studies will find an introduction to possible opportunities for professional and informal involvement with ASL/Deaf culture children and adults. Deaf Culture fills a unique niche as an introductory text that is accessible and straightforward for those beginning their studies of the Deaf World.