The Power of ASL 4 Summer 2016 – Issue 2
( Continued from page 1)
Rochester Institute of Technology who accepted to present their ASL literature works at the following MLA conference, which was held in Vancouver, British Columbia on January 10, 2015. The session was called“ Understanding American Sign Language( ASL) Literature as Part of a Minority Study Program” presided by Guillaume Chastel from University of Rochester. Dr. Supalla’ s presentation was entitled, ASL Literature Series as a Model for the Study of Literary Work in an Unwritten Language; Dr. Schlehofer’ s presentation was“ Valli’ s‘ Hands’ in American Sign Language’ and Dr. Bahan’ s presentation revolved around tools of ASL literary artists and genre formation. For the first time, Drs. Supalla and Schlehofer attended the MLA conference along with Dr. Jody H. Cripps and his colleague Mr. Ronald Fenicle from Towson University, who discussed their analysis of an ASL curriculum and its implementation for L2 pedagogy.
The following year, in January 2016, two special sessions“ ASL and Deaf Cultural Studies as Academic Disciplines” and“ Teaching ASL” were held at the MLA conference in Austin, Texas. Dr. Supalla from University of Arizona described some considerations for the uniqueness of ASL and Dr. Schlehofer from Rochester Institute of Technology( RIT) explored how literary theory of ASL evolved in directions. Dr. Russell Rosen from College of Staten Island( CUNY) offered an historical perspective of issues and trends in curriculum, instruction, and assessment, as well as presented the second paper on secondary students’ motivation for ASL as a foreign language. In his paper“ Inside a Closer Look: Critical Social Inquiry and the Deaf Cultural Studies Program,” Dr. JMatt Searls from RIT discussed the specialized study of minority groups from a cultural perspective and explained that the field of cultural studies surrounded the contextual definition and meaning that created a thorough understanding of the values, identities, social roles, and expectations. Co- Director and lecturer Norma Tourangeau from University of Rochester showed initial findings from survey data collected from students majoring and minoring in ASL within the University of Rochester’ s four-year undergraduate program( see the photo).
For the 2017 MLA convention in Philadelphia, two sessions have been created with two new incoming presenters Dr. Flavia Fleischer, Department of Deaf Studies from California State University of Northridge and Dr. Andrew Byrne, Department of World Languages from Framingham State University in addition to Drs. Supalla and Schlehofer. We look forward to new ideas and collaborative spirit with the MLA and other universities pursuing intellectual inquiry in the field of Deaf / ASL studies.
Allied Organization Phase
In Austin, Texas, some of the SASL committee members, who are current MLA members, held a private meeting about how to become allied with the MLA in the presence of Deirdre Henry who is Coordinator of Allied Programs and Convention Programs on Saturday, January 9, 2016. The SASL explained its history of having attended the MLA annual conventions for the past two years and would like to be active in future convention sessions— presenting a paper, serving as a roundtable panelist, facilitating a workshop, or presiding at a session. The SASL is committed to this goal in order to attract a wide audience, as well as to promote the recognition of ASL literature within the area of Minority Studies. Deirdre Henry has agreed to work closely with SASL in helping how to become allied with MLA. Dr. Deirdre Schlehofer is a liaison between MLA and SASL.
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