The Power of ASL
A So ci et y Supp o rti ng L angua ge, L it erac y, and
Perf orm ing Art s in t he Si gne d Mo da li ty
Summer 2016
A Newsletter of the Society for American Sign Language
Issue 2
By
Deirdre
Schlehofer,
Rochester
Institute
of
Technology
The Society for American Sign Language (SASL) is actively working on how to join the
Modern Language Association (MLA) as an allied organization, which represents a professional
association whose interests encompasses disciplines represented by the MLA and whose purposes
and activities are closely allied to those of the MLA. One of the SASL’s goals is to host special
sessions during the annual MLA convention that can attract the maximum number of MLA
members who share their interests in ASL, linguistics, literature, and history (click here for the
MLA mission statement).
History of Past MLA Conferences Related to Deaf / ASL Studies
In the past, several scholars from universities presented their works on Deaf / ASL Studies at
the MLA annual conventions, but this area appeared to slack off only recently. How did this story
evolve? Representing the University of Rochester’s ASL Program, faculty members Norma
Tourangeau and Guillaume Chastel, who are both Deaf and teach Deaf Studies in the
undergraduate program, attended the 2014 MLA Annual Convention in Chicago and soon
discovered that the MLA sessions did not include ASL, even though ASL is the 4th most popular
language / scholarly study program in the United States. They raised the concern about the lack of
visibility that attracted immediate attention from MLA President David Goldberg and MLA
Director of Programs and Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL) Dennis
Looney who were present at their conference session. Dr. Goldberg approached Ms. Tourangeau
and Mr. Chastel about improving the visibility and asked them to help the MLA by inviting ASL
scholars to host special sessions focusing on the field of Deaf / ASL studies. They ensured that
special sessions on ASL would be reserved in the near future. In turn, Ms. Tourangeau and Mr.
Chastel contacted Professors Sam Supalla from University of Arizona, Ben Bahan from Gallaudet
University, and Deirdre Schlehofer from …
(Continued to page 4)
The Power of ASL
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Summer 2016 – Issue 2