Once a semester, the ASL and Deaf Studies program at the University of Pennsylvania hosts a lecture on a topic relevant to Sign Language and Deaf Studies. The following is a list of past events. For those who have agreed to make their presentations public, we have included a link to a video recording of the event linked to the title of the talk.
Fall 2017: Dr. Terra Edwards, Assistant Professor, Saint Louis University. “Language for a Protactile World: social and interactional foundations of language emergence in DeafBlind communities.”
Spring 2017: Dr. Joseph Murray and Dr. Brian Greenwald, Gallaudet University. “Our Historical Memory: The National Deaf-Mute College and Alexander Graham Bell”
Fall 2016: Dr. Erin Wilkinson, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba. “Lexical Access in Deaf Bilinguals”
Spring 2016: Dr. Octavian Robinson, Assistant Professor, College of the Holy Cross. “”Ableist Rhetoric at the Turn of the 20th Century”
Fall 2015: Dr. Ronice Müller de Quadros, Professor at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Brazil. “Sign Language Policies/Language Planning”
Spring 2015: Dr. Carol Padden, Professor of Communication and Dean of the Division of Social Science, University of California, San Diego. “The co-emergence of meaning and structure in new sign languages”
Fall 2014: Mark Drolsbaugh, “Madness in the Mainstream”
Spring 2014: Dr. Karen Emmorey, Distinguished Professor in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, San Diego State University, “The Signing Brain.”
Fall 2013: Dr. Peter Hauser, Associate Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology, “How Deaf Children Learn.”
Spring 2013: Dr. Ceil Lucas, Professor, and Dr. Carolyn McCaskill, Professors, Gallaudet University, “Black ASL: a historical and linguistic overview.”
Fall 2012: Dr. Ted Supalla, Professor, Georgetown School of Medicine, “The Role of Historical Research in Understanding Sign Language Typology, Variation, and Change”
Spring 2012: Dr. Joseph Murray, Assistant Professor, Gallaudet University, “Adapting to the Global: Communities of the Deaf and the Rise of International Sign”
Fall 2011: Teresa Burke, Ph. D., Assistant Professor, Gallaudet University, “Genetic Alteration: The Ethics of Creating Deaf Persons”
Spring 2011: Gene Mirus, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Gallaudet University, “Going Beyond the 4 Parameters: Examining the Role of Joints in ASL”
Fall 2010: Adrian Blue, Deaf actor and director: “Theatre is all about ‘Language'”
Spring 2010: Donna Jo Napoli, Ph.D., Professor of Linguistics, Swarthmore College, “Simultaneity in Signed Languages”
Spring 2010: Arkady Belozovsky, Brown University ASL Program Coordinator, “Whose ASL Is It?”
Fall 2009: Larry Taub, Ed.D, Headmaster, Pennsylvania School for the Deaf
Spring 2009: E. Lynn Jacobowitz, PhD, Gallaudet University, “ASL Handshape Stories: Strategies Using ASL Cherology and Deaf Culture
Spring 2008: Carol Padden, PhD, University of California, San Diego, “Sign Languages in the Age of Cochlear Implants”
Spring 2008: Ann Calamia and Catherine Miller, writer/director and producer of the film,Universal Signs. Presentation to Penn community.
Fall 2008: Christopher Krentz, PhD, University of Virginia. “Writing Deafness, from Laurent Clerc to Mark Twain”
Fall 2007: Victor Palenny, PhD. Russian Deaf researcher on Deaf Education and Art “The Intersection of Russian and American Deaf Education”
Spring 2007: Ryan Commerson, Deaf Activist and Educator, “Deaf Activism and Hearing Allies”
Fall 2006: Trix Bruce, ASL performer and storyteller
Spring 2006: Sandy Duncan, Coordinator for the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation for the Deaf and Deaf-Blind. “Deafness: One Man’s Perspective”
Fall 2005: Mark Drolsbaugh, author and school counselor. “Anything but Silent”