Signs and Voices: Deaf Culture Identity Language and Arts

About this book

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 zyrek David M. Perlmutter Anne Senghas and Ronnie Wilbur. Signs and Voices is divided into three sectionsCulture and Identity Language and Literacy and American Sign Language in the Artseach 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.