• Ph.D., American University, Cultural Anthropology, 1982
• Q.E., School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Social Anthropology, 1977
• M.A., Northwestern University, Communicative Disorders, 1973
• B.S., Northwestern University, Communicative Disorders: Deaf Education, 1970

Carol J. Erting began her career teaching deaf children in Chicago, then St. Louis County and finally Atlanta, Georgia. She arrived in Washington, DC in 1974 to work with Dr. William C. Stokoe, Jr., as a research associate in the Linguistics Research lab at Gallaudet College and to begin her doctoral studies in Cultural Anthropology at American University supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate fellowship. In 1977, she began working with Dr. Kathryn Meadow at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School conducting studies of mother-child interaction.

During her 30-year career at Gallaudet, she has been Director of the Culture and Communication Studies program of the Gallaudet Research Institute (1987-1996), Professor in the Linguistics Department (1983-1996); Professor (1996-present) and Chair (2004-2007), Department of Education, and is now Interim Dean of the Graduate School and Professional Programs. She was the Program Chair for the Deaf Way Conference and Festival (1989) and has contributed numerous scholarly articles, chapters, and books to the literature on socialization and education in the deaf community from a cultural and linguistic perspective.

Language and Culture, Deaf Communities; Ethnographic Educational Research: ASL/English Bilingual Education (preschool); Language, Culture and Literacy; Language Socialization - Deaf Communities; Parent-Child Interaction