Historical Perspective on Culture Talking

Talking Culture & Strange Talk

The Emergence of the Modern Voice

ASL: Secret Language to Public Commodity

The Problem and Promise of Voice

Tom Humphries, Associate Professor, Dept. of Communication & Associate Director, Associate Professor, Teacher Education Program, University of California, San Diego

A little more about Tom: I was born and raised in the community of Possum Fork and later in the town of Johnsonville, South Carolina to hearing parents. I stopped hearing when I was about 6. I was very ill and my parents were told that I might not survive. Medication that I took at that time (a mycin) may have been a reason I stopped hearing. I attended public school in Johnsonville for 12 years, a school populated by my relatives.

I learned to sign at Gallaudet College beginning at the age of 17. The transition from small town to big city Washington, D.C. was nothing compared to the transition from a hearing school to a college where I was immersed overnight among 1000 Deaf people with whom I could barely communicate. It took at least 2 years of total immersion for me to become decently fluent in ASL and to learn to be Deaf. This was to influence my later work in communication and culture as well as in education.

Tom and his wife Carol Padden have recently published a book entitled, Inside Deaf Culture.

March 18, 9:00 a.m.  4:00 p.m. College Mennonite Church Fellowship Hall, Goshen College, Goshen, IN. Pre-registration $50.00 available until March 10. Registration at the door $60.00. Members of RID and/or NAD or affiliate chapters save $10.00

INTERPRETED BY: Steve Phan and Alan Champion

Goshen Colleges four-year ASL/Interpreter Preparation Program invites you to Feed Your Eyes, Mind & Spirit Seminar #9. Please pre-register by calling 574-535-7566 (D/deaf callers please use relay). No refunds. Wheelchair accessible. Interpreters provided. For map: www.goshen.edu/aboutgc/map.php For more information contact Tracey Stack at traceys@goshen.edu

This workshop is being offered for .6 CEUs in the Content Area of Professional Studies at little/none content knowledge for RID. For Indiana EIC holders this workshop meets the category 2 requirements. DHHS is the CMP sponsor. Sponsored in part by the Indiana Chapter of Registry Interpreters for the Deaf.