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Center for Black Deaf Studi...
Black ASL Project
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The Black ASL Project works to describe the linguistic features of a variety of American Sign Language (ASL) used by African American signers, often referred to as Black ASL. Facilitators are especially interested in recollections of individual experiences in schools for Black Deaf children themselves, or the experience of their relatives. The project is sponsored by Gallaudet University’s Linguistics, and ASL, and Deaf Studies programs and is supported in part by the Spencer Foundation and the National Science Foundation Project # BCS-0813736.
To view the project’s description as it appears in the NSF proposal, click here.
The goals of the project include:
Carolyn McCaskill, Ceil Lucas, Robert Bayley, and Joseph Hill
Click here to Order
Signing Black in America is a documentary related to the Black ASL Project. It was produced by the Language & Life Project at NC State University. For more information, to purchase a DVD, and to watch the film, visit talkingblackinamerica.org/signing-black-in-america.
In order of the year in which the schools for Black Deaf children were founded: North Carolina (1869) Texas (1887) Arkansas (1887) Alabama (1892) Virginia (1909) Louisiana (1938) At each site, groups of signers “over 55”, i.e. attended school during segregation and groups of signers...
The Black ASL Project has collected data from attendees of these schools: North Carolina State School for the Colored Deaf and Blind (NCSSCDB), Raleigh Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Colored Youths, Austin, Texas Arkansas School for the Deaf, "Colored Department", Little Rock Alabama...
Since the project began in July of 2007, we have done a number of presentations at a variety of conferences. Here you will find the name of the conferences and a representative power point handout for each topic. Black ASL: The Socio-historical Foundation DOWNLOAD Sociolinguistics...
Project Co-Director Gallaudet University, Department of Linguistics (Emerita)
Project Co-Director University of California -Davis, Department of Linguistics
Project Archivist and Community Representative
Research Assistant Gallaudet University, Department of ASL and Deaf Studies and George Mason University, ASL Instructor
Research Assistant Gallaudet University, Department of Linguistics and Associate Professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf/RIT
Kent State University, Coordinator of the ASL Program
Research Assistant Gallaudet University, Department of ASL and Deaf Studies
Research Assistant Web Administrator Gallaudet University, Department of Linguistics
Research Assistant Web Administrator Gallaudet University, Department of Interpreting