UAF Libraries Graduate Student Library Use Survey Fall 2010

Triennial campus-wide UAF libraries use survey, summary of results for graduate students

UAF Libraries Faculty and Researchers Library Use Survey Fall 2010

Triennial campus-wide UAF libraries use survey, summary of results for faculty and researchers

UAF Libraries Undergraduate Student Library Use Survey Fall 2007 

Triennial campus-wide UAF libraries use survey, summary of results for undergraduate students

UAF Libraries Undergraduate Student Library Use Survey Fall 2010

Triennial campus-wide UAF libraries use survey, summary of results for undergraduate students

Themes and symbols in ASL poetry: Resistance, affirmation, and liberation

This paper analyzes themes and symbols in a number of works of poetry in American Sign Language. In particular, the expression of themes of resistance to oppressive elements of the dominant (hearing) culture and affirmation of the values of Deaf American culture will be identified and described in various poetic works. For analysis, definitions of resistance and affirmation are borrowed from Durr and Grcevic (1999) and Durr (1999/2000) who applied these concepts to the works of Deaf artists striving to represent the Deaf experience. Our analysis confirms that there exists a thriving tradition of ASL poetic works which can be described as having themes and symbols of resistance and affirmation. Because a number of poems were found to depict the journey from resistance to affirmation, a third theme, called liberation, was created. Furthermore, we propose that these poems can be viewed as part of both postcolonial literature literary studies and the basic tenets established by the De\u27VIA Manifesto. Because of the universality of the Deaf experience across cultures, the poetry of ASL would likely embody themes which hold international relevance for analysis of the signed poetry of Deaf cultures around the world

Roots and wings: ASL poems of Coming Home

For many Deaf people born into hearing families, coming home into the Deaf community for the first time is a common experience and leads to a change in language use and identity. In this paper, we relate how Deaf literary artists, and specifically ASL poets, represent this experience of coming home. The quest for a home is also a common theme which has emerged among the literatures of postcolonial peoples in exile (Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tifflin, 2005) and we will suggest it parallels the Deaf experience. In addition, we look at the symbols used by ASL poets for representing the journey to Deafhood (cf. Ladd, 1993). The ASL poems, Cocoon Child by Clayton Valli (1995) and Black Hole: Colors ASL by Debbie Rennie (199o), in particular, employ images which suggest that finding home for the first time inspires a liberating transformation of not only language and identity, but also of spirit. It is this experience which Deaf people desire to bequeath to future generations of Deaf children: that which provides them with both roots and wings

When is a Difference Really Different? Learners\u27 Discrimination of Linguistic Contrasts in American Sign Language

Learners’ ability to recognize linguistic contrasts in American Sign Language (ASL)was investigated using a paired-comparison discrimination task. Minimal pairs containing contrasts in five linguistic categories (i.e., the formational parameters of movement, handshape, orientation, and location in ASL phonology, and a category comprised of contrasts in complex morphology) were presented in sentence contexts to a sample of 127 hearing learners at beginning and intermediate levels of proficiency and 10 Deaf native signers. Participants’ responses were analyzed to determine the relative difficulty of the linguistic categories and the effect of proficiency level on performance. The results indicated that movement contrasts were the most difficult and location contrasts the easiest, with the other categories of stimuli of intermediate difficulty. These findings have implications for language learning in situations in which the first language is a spoken language and the second language (L2) is a signed language. In such situations, the construct of language transfer does not apply to the acquisition of L2 phonology because of fundamental differences between the phonological systems of signed and spoken languages, which are associated with differences between the modalities of speech and sign

Close-up: Contemporary deaf filmmakers

Professors and filmmakers, Facundo Montenegro (2006) and Dr. Jane Norman (2005) have both asked the question What is Deaf Cinema? In this paper, we look at a number of films screened at the Deaf Rochester Film Festival (DRFF) \u2705 and produced by contemporary Deaf student filmmakers for some answers. In particular, we note how the filmmakers utilized the medium of film to communicate: the use of themes, discourse format, and visual aesthetics