Strengthening Deaf Academics and Researchers Agora

Véro Leduc

Véro Leduc is an artist, engaged scholar, and a professor in Communication Studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal where she teaches in a cultural action program. Member of numerous research teams and networks, her practices are anchored in critical, intersectional, feminist, queer, decolonial, crip and Deaf perspectives. The first Deaf university professor in Quebec, her current investigations focuses on Deaf and disability arts practices in Canada, Deaf music, life at work for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, cultural citizenship of Deaf people and cultural accessibility and equity practices.

Daz Saunders

Daz Saunders is an engaged citizen, who learned this commitment from his Deaf parents and cannot imagine his life in any other way than by participating in change. He has contributed to civic life in community organizations by advocating for full Deaf access to health, the arts, justice and information. His main focus remains recognition of Sign Languages, and the contribution of Deaf citizens in the society. He is currently Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics at UQAM with a focus on non-manual features in LSQ.

Theara Yim

With his two passions in Deaf Education and Quebec Sign Language (LSQ) promotion, he teaches Deaf children from kindergarten to high schools across Ontario and Quebec. Currently a school teacher at Lucien-Pagé, in Montreal, he holds a Master’s degree in Education Administration from the University of Ottawa. On top of being a 3rd cycle student in higher education at the University of Sherbrooke, he’s also an LSQ instructor at University of Montreal’s Medical Department, which is designed for future doctors, speech therapists, audiologists and psychologists.

Cynthia Benoit

Involved in the Deaf community since over 15 years, Cynthia Benoit holds a Master’s degree in Urban Studies and a Certificate in Business Administration. Her specialization has been in accessibility to services provided in sign language. Strenghtened from her multiple experiences on the international level in linguistics, interpreting and teaching, she has several strings to her bow.

After living for few years in the United States and Canada, she currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario, where she manages her business, CB Linguistic Services, that provides various sign languages services such as consulting, research and training across Canada.

Charline Savard

Born in a Deaf family, Charline was brought up in the heart of the Deaf community. Barely 18, she moved to Montreal and volunteered in several not for profit organizations while sitting on various Board of Directors of Quebec Deaf organizations. She holds a degree in medical records and in entrepreneurship. She’s currently an undergraduate student in Management at TELUQ, an online-based university.

Charline was part of the 3rd Deaf Women’s Conference of Canada organizing committee back in 2014. She aims to bring her experience to the DAC 2021 planning.

Audrey Beauchamp

Deeply committed to Deaf and hard of hearing people’s accessibility, Audrey has been involved in organizations and businesses which values meets hers. She also has over 10 years of experience in communication, project coordination, management and event planning.

Currently a 2nd cycle university student in Communications, Marketing and Branding, she took part to the 3rd Deaf Women Conference of Canada back in 2014 as a public relations director. She aims to make this international Conference a great one while delivering an unforgettable public space for all Deaf academics and researchers.

Dr. Ingo Barth

He was born Deaf in 1976, studied physics at the TU Berlin with diploma received in 2004. In 2009, he completed his PhD thesis in theoretical chemistry at the FU Berlin. After the five-year postdoc period, he is the leader of the research group “Current-Carrying Quantum Dynamics” started in 2014 at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Halle (Saale), Germany. Since 2015, he has organized German STEM workshops for deaf people in STEM fields and STEM sign language interpreters. Recently, he is the leader of the Sign2MINT project to develop and document STEM terms in German Sign Language.

Andrew P. J. Byrne, Ph.D.

Born to Deaf parents in Perth, Ontario, Canada, Dr. Andrew Byrne earned a Master of Science degree from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from York University in Toronto, Ontario. He has been a teacher for 27 years teaching at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels in Canada and the United States. Currently, he is a clinical assistant professor and the ASL program director at the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York. His current areas of interest are ASL genre formation, ASL literary criticism, and the canon of ASL literary works.

Dr. Audrey Cameron

Audrey Cameron is a Teaching Fellow (Science Education) at Moray House School of Education and Sport at University of Edinburgh. I teach on 3 courses – PGDE Secondary Education (chemistry), PGDE Primary Education (science), MSc Inclusive Education (Deaf Studies). She is also the project manager of the STEM in BSL glossary at the Scottish Sensory Centre, also at University of Edinburgh -.  Audrey also does postdoctoral research at Heriot-Watt University with Professor Jemina Napier on the European JustiSigns 2 project – focusing on deaf community and gender violence.

Dr. Linda Campbell

Dr. Campbell is a Professor and a Senior Research Fellow at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. Her interdisciplinary research and teaching at Saint Mary’s University focus on food webs and contaminants in the environment, with emphasis on aquatic ecosystems. Dr. Campbell is Deaf and has developed collaborative approaches for inclusion of both Deaf and hearing team members in scientific research and teaching. She also has collaborated on ASL-English scientific and academic interpreting protocols and documents. Dr. Campbell also sits on the Gallaudet University Board of Trustees and Saint Mary’s University Board of Governors.

Dr. Cathy Chovaz C.Psych.

Dr. Cathy Chovaz is a professor and Chair of Psychology and Director of CDEAF at Kings University College at Western University. She teaches courses in child and adult clinical psychology and her area of expertise is mental health and deafness. She gives many workshops and invited talks, has published journal articles, and her book, co-authored with Dr. M. Du Feu, entitled Mental Health and Deafness was published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Chovaz is Canada’s first Deaf clinical psychologist and she maintains a consultation private practice.

Dr. John Bosco Conama

Dr Conama is the Director of the Centre for Deaf Studies in Trinity College. He sits on the Board of the Irish Deaf Society and he has been involved in many committees and working groups to monitor the progress of Deaf and disabled people in society. His recent publications have focused on Deaf people in society, especially focusing on language rights and equality.  He graduated with a doctorate from University College Dublin and his thesis focused on a comparative policy analysis of signed languages in two countries – Finland and Ireland.  Dr Conama was awarded as one of the European Label Language Ambassador for 2015.

Jody H. Cripps

Dr. Jody H. Cripps is an Assistant Professor of American Sign Language in the Department of Languages at Clemson University. Dr. Cripps’ research interests primarily focus on universal design, signed music, signed language pathology, ASL-English literacy and pedagogical methods, and social responsibility. Dr. Cripps’ latest grant allows for conducting ground-breaking ethnomusicological research in Canada on the creative process and production of a signed music showcase titled, « THE BLACK DRUM », performed by a signing musical theater troupe, the sponsorship funded on the behalf of the Canadian Council of the Arts via Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf. In addition to his teaching and research, he also serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the Society for American Sign Language Journal and the Vice President of The Gloss Institute, a non-profit organization providing educators and parents the necessary tools and resources to overcome the habitually low literacy (English) rates in Deaf children.

Dr. Maartje De Meulder

Maartje De Meulder is senior researcher at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. She specializes in Deaf Studies and applied language studies. Her research roadmap is broad and interdisciplinary, and inspired by contemporary societal challenges. She has published in a range of different journals including Applied Linguistics Review, The International Journal of Inclusive Education, The Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Human Rights Quarterly, and Translation and Interpreting Studies, and has co-edited Innovations in Deaf Studies (Oxford University Press, 2017) and The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages (Multilingual Matters, 2019). She is the main editor of Acadeafic (acadeafic.org) and on Twitter as @mdemeulder

Dr. Hilde Haualand

Dr. Hilde Haualand is an associate professor at the Department of International studies and Interpreting at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, where she is the head of the section for sign language and interpreting. Some of her publications are on sign language interpreters and professionalism, sign language interpreting services and the impact on service provisions, the politics of video interpreting, disability, identity and marginalization, deaf people and transnational connections, sign language ideologies.

Evan Hibbard

Lina Hou, PhD

She received her PhD in Linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin in 2016. She was a recipient of University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program from 2016-2018 at University of California, San Diego (UCSD), before joining UCSB. Her research interests encompass child language acquisition of sign languages, language socialization and ideologies, documentation and description of sign languages, and cognitive-functional linguistics. She also researches racial, gender, and disability bias in linguistics, and imposter syndrome and designated sign language interpreters. Finally, she is engaged with online social justice activism in Asian-American Pacific-Islander deaf and signing communities.

Christopher Kurz, PhD

Dr. Christopher Kurz is a Professor and the Director of the DEAF Math-Science Language and Learning Lab in Rochester Institute of Technology. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics with concentrations in Statistics and Physics from RIT and a doctorate in Foundations of Education from University of Kansas. His research and pedagogy interests include content and language literacy in mathematics and science, bilingual education, sign language as an academic language within math/science pedagogy, and deaf people of historical significance in the fields of science and mathematics.

Dr. Annelies Kusters

Annelies Kusters leads a research project called “Deaf mobilities across international borders: Visualising intersectionality and translanguaging”, funded by the European Research Council (2017-2022).  Her current work is situated at the intersection of linguistic anthropology and social geography, in particular the study of deaf space, multilingual language practices, language ideologies, transnationalism and mobilities.

Véro Leduc

Véro Leduc is an artist, engaged scholar, and a professor in Communication Studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal where she teaches in a cultural action program. Member of numerous research teams and networks, her practices are anchored in critical, intersectional, feminist, queer, decolonial, crip and Deaf perspectives. The first Deaf university professor in Quebec, her current investigations focuses on Deaf and disability arts practices in Canada, Deaf music, life at work for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, cultural citizenship of Deaf people and cultural accessibility and equity practices.

Alex Lu

Alex is a PhD candidate in the computer science department at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on machine learning for biology, producing methods that discover previously unknown functions and behaviors for proteins through learning from millions of microscopy images.

Rezenet Moges-Riedel

Rezenet Moges-Riedel works as a full-time Lecturer at CSU-Long Beach and completes her Educational Doctorate at CSU-Northridge in 2020. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on Deaf Faculty of Color in postsecondary institutions, exploring about their intersectional and retention experiences. Her recent and upcoming publications concentrate on CRT and Intersectionality in three areas: Black Deaf, Deaf Queer and female-bodied, masculine-of-center people communities.

Dr. Joseph J. Murray

Joseph J. Murray is Professor of Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University. He is co-editor of Deaf Gain: Raising the Stakes for Human Diversity (2014, University of Minnesota Press);  In Our Own Hands: Essays in Deaf History 1780-1970 (2016, Gallaudet University Press); and The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages: Advocacy and Outcomes Around the World(2019, Multilingual Matters).  He was guest editor for two issues of Sign Language Studies and has published in deaf studies, applied linguistics, human rights, and deaf history.  Dr. Murray has presented in over 40 countries around the world in his two decades of human rights work.

Dr. Onudeah D. Nicolarakis

Onudeah, also known as Oni, is an adjunct professor at Teachers College and at LaGuardia Community College’s ASL/English Interpretation Program. She also provides private consultations and professional development workshops in various subjects from diversity to specific curriculum areas such as ASL/English literacy. Oni has over ten years of experience in the PK-12 setting as a teacher and as a curriculum specialist. In addition, she has been involved with various Deaf-led non-profit organizations and committees over the years. Her research interests include functional writing development, critical theory, language and literacy acquisition, and asset-based/anti-deficit framework.

Octavian E. Robinson, Ph.D.

Octavian Robinson earned his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in history. He also holds a M.A. in Deaf Studies from Gallaudet. He is a professional historian by training with a research agenda rooted in critical disability studies. He has published on history, ableist rhetoric, citizenship, disability justice, and linguistic rights. He is currently working on several essays exploring ableism, linguicism, and audism.

Deirdre Schlehofer, Ed.D.

Schlehofer earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Alaska at Anchorage, then went on to earn her Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Bristol, England, and her doctorate in teaching and curriculum from the University of Rochester.  Her primary interests include critical theory, deaf women’s issues, and qualitative research methods with signing communities.

Shazia Siddiqi, MD, MPH.

Shazia Siddiqi, MD, MPH, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Siddiqi earned Bachelor’s in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley, Master’s in Public Health from Dartmouth College, and Doctor of Medicine degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine. Her current research is focused on global Deaf health through conducting community-based participatory research strategies with Deaf populations worldwide, trauma-informed care through analyzing relationships between trauma and health outcomes in Deaf community, and Deaf health equity by exploring barriers in Deaf people’s access to health care.

Kristin Snoddon, Ph.D.

Kristin Snoddon, Ph.D. is Associate Professor with the School of Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University. Her research and professional experience includes collaborative work with deaf communities in developing sign language and early literacy programming for young deaf children and their parents. Additionally, she analyzes policy issues related to inclusive education, sign language rights, and acquisition planning for ASL. She has served as Co-ordinator for the World Federation of the Deaf’s Expert Group on Deaf Education. She also serves as Executive Editor for Deafness & Education International. Her newest book is Sign Language Ideologies in Practice (with Annelies Kusters, Mara Green, and Erin Moriarty Harrelson).

Francisco Martins Lopes Terceiro

Deaf Researcher, Master in Education by the Postgraduate Program in Education – PPGE, Diversity, Difference and Social Inequality in Education, Education Sector, at the Federal University of Paraná – UFPR. Graduated in Pedagogy from Centro Universitário Central Paulista, São Carlos- SP (UNICEP). Proficiency in teaching Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), certified by the National Certification Examination of Proficiency in Libras (PROLIBRAS 2015, MEC/INES/UFSC). The research interests cover subjects in the area of Deaf Studies and public policies for the implementation and development of Bilingual Schools and/or Inclusive Schools for the Deaf, in Brazil.

Joanne Catherine Weber, PhD

Joanne Weber, PhD (2018) is a Deaf teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at Winston Knoll Collegiate, Regina, SK.  She is also the artistic director of Deaf Crows Collective which aims to provide opportunities for theatre performance by deaf actors of all ages to celebrate Deaf culture, encourage self-expression, and foster relationships between hearing and Deaf communities.  Joanne received the Governor General Gold Medal for her work with deaf youth using arts-based language and literacy interventions.  Joanne has been nominated for a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in the field of deaf education at the University of Alberta.

Erin Wilkinson

Erin Wilkinson is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of New Mexico. Her research interests include bilingualism in signing populations, sign language policy, language change and variation in signed languages, and signed language typology. Her current studies in collaboration with other researchers examine bilingualism in highly diverse communities with respect to language socialization and language planning and policy. She also collaboratively explores what linguistic structures are re-structured over time in signed languages and what are possible factors that contribute to language change and variation in diverse sign language communities in the lens of usage-base theory.

Dr. Kathryn Woodcock

Dr. Kathryn Woodcock is involved in unique extracurricular training, research, and knowledge mobilization activities focused on human factors of amusement rides and attractions pertaining to guests, operators, and inspectors. She also consults to designer/manufacturers and owner/operators. Her work has been presented in over 75 peer-reviewed publications and over 200 industry and professional publications and presentations. Dr. Woodcock is a member of TEA, IAAPA, Ontario Amusement Devices Advisory Council, Executive Committee of ASTM Committee F24 and Themed Experience and Attractions Academic Society, and Board of Directors of AIMS International.

9th International Deaf Academics and Researchers Conference

8th International Deaf Academics and Researchers Conference

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2nd International Deaf Academics and Researchers Conference

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