Linguistics Colloquium Series

Featuring Dr. Carolyn McCaskill and Dr. Ceil Lucas from Gallaudet University. This presentation reports on the socio-historical foundations of a variety of American Sign Language (ASL) commonly referred to as Black ASL, described by Hairston and Smith (1983) as “a Black way of signing used by Black people in their own cultural milieu- among families and friends, in social gatherings, and in deaf clubs.” As part of the foundation for an on-going study of the phonological, syntactic and lexical structure of Black ASL, this presentation will review the history of education for Black deaf children and discuss the implications of this history for the structure and use of Black ASL.