Our Time: The Legacy of the 20th Century

This lecture will focus on the impact of DPN throughout the United States. How has Deaf America changed over the past quarter-century? What areas have seen a marked improvement, and what challenges remain? The discussion will focus on the key changes in deaf education, access to health care, employment, technology, and language rights over the past four decades in the United States.

Dr. Humphries is now Associate Professor (Department of Education Studies) and Associate Professor (Department of Communication) at the University of California, San Diego for the last 15 years, and he is extensively involved in the Department of Education and UCSD community and is on the Gallaudet Board of Trustees.

One strand of his current work focuses on how “talking culture” among Deaf people in recent history informs our understanding of cultural processes and how meaning circulates. He has also developed a teacher training curriculum that uses an entirely new construct: the application of indigenous bilingual teaching practices to classrooms of deaf children. Professor Humphries is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Gallaudet University.

He has published two widely used ASL textbooks, Learning American Sign Language (Allyn & Bacon, 2004) and A Basic Course in American Sign Language (TJ Publishers, 1980). He is co-author (with Carol Padden) of Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture (1988) and the newly released Inside Deaf Culture, both from Harvard University Press.

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Tuesday, April 2
12:30 – 1:50 p.m.
Foster Auditorium