About the Project
The objectives of this four-year project are :
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❖to create a filmed corpus of conversational Black ASL as it is used in the South. The focus is on the structure and history of Southern Black ASL because that region is where the most radical segregation occurred in the education of Black and White deaf children, creating the conditions for the development of a separate language variety.
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❖to provide a description of the linguistic features that make Black ASL recognizable as a distinct variety of ASL and of the history of the education of Black Deaf children.
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❖to disseminate the project findings in the form of teaching materials and instructional resources.
Collaborators on the project
Project Co-Director Gallaudet University, Department of ASL and Deaf Studies
Project Co-Director
Gallaudet University,
Department of Linguistics
Project Co-Director University of California -Davis,
Department of Linguistics
Project Archivist
Research Assistant
Gallaudet University,
Department of ASL and Deaf Studies
Research Assistant
Gallaudet University,
Department of Linguistics
Web Master
Gallaudet University,
Department of Linguistics
Ms. Stephanie Johnson
Research Assistant
Gallaudet University,
Department of ASL and
Deaf Studies
Ms. TaWanda Barkley
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
Virginia State School for the Deaf, Hampton, VA
SITES VISITED, 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 “under 35”, i.e. attended integrated schools, have been filmed in free conversation, structured interviews and lexical and narrative elicitation. To see examples of our data click on Data Collection at the bottom of the page.
