Presentation Video
Presentation Transcript
Watching the Black Deaf Studies Symposium was a long-time dream coming true for many of us. The event gave us our own space to see and listen to so many Black signing scholars and about their research and personal success. Not only as an academic space, it was also a space for us to reunite, laugh, praise, dance, grieve and bawl. Instead of letting this phenomenally historical event be an ephemeral experience or mere memories for only the people in attendance, DSDJ and the publication. We cautiously contemplated and reflected in-depth about the importance of this publication as it sets the tone for future publications and symposiums. We wanted to honor solid research and academic work while not centering White male heteronormative research evaluation methods. In order to do that, we narrowed from 17 presentations and 4 panel discussions during the symposium to 13 contributing papers, based on four objectives explained below.
Firstly, the mission of the Black Deaf Studies symposium was to question and indicate the values of the discipline of the scholarship of/for/by Black Deaf people. Their contributions would provide us some answers to, “Why Black Deaf Studies Matters?” a critical question finding an academic space for our Black Deaf signing communities. Second, each contributing paper would offer us their original scholarship or critique of the referred scholarship. Third, since we argued for an academic space for Black Deaf Studies, the selected works offer some additional new perspectives or thoughts and help to expand our thinking about Black Deaf Studies. Finally, we sought work that demonstrated how Black Deaf Studies contributes to our thinking about Deaf Studies and Black Studies.
In the end, we believe each work exemplified here has aligned with the Black Deaf Studies Symposium’s values, spirit, and academic nature. We trust that our readers/viewers will benefit from each one of their works honoring and celebrating our Black Deaf signing communities.
Publication Team
Patrick Boudreault, Executive Editor
Rezenet Moges-Riedel, Co-Editor
Lissa Ramirez-Stapleton, Co-Editor
Megan Konstandtinidis, Assistant Editor
Brenna Smith, Assistant Editor
Carolyn McCaskill, CBDS Director
Lindsay Dunn, CBDS Scholar Fellow
Evon Black, CBDS Associate Director
Kristina McKinnie, CBDS Assistant
Theodore Doresette III, Lead Videographer
Cem Barutcu, Videographer
Amelia Palmer, Videographer
JC Smith, Videographer
Blue20 LLC, Editing and Transcript
Publication Funding
This symposium proceeding was made possible with generous financial support from Sorenson Communications and Gallaudet University; The Office of the Provost, and Gesture Literacy Knowledge Studio.