Language & Culture talk: Sign Language & Spatiality, 7 Oct

Language and Culture Series 2014/2015

Tuesday 7 October at 17.30
Language Learning Centre, Arts A

John D. Walker, Teaching Fellow in British Sign Language and doctoral student in Social Geography (University of Sussex):

Sign Language and Spatiality

Language and culture is not devoid of place. A land, nation, community enclave or diaspora are examples of spaces where languages are situated and its boundaries imagined.

John will discuss how the relationship between spatiality and sign language are manifested, which explores how the physical landscape is represented in sign language spaces and how deaf cultural norms are embodied in physical spaces. He will also draw on examples from different ideas about language and spatiality, including the linguistics of syntactic/topographical sign spaces, the creation of spaces in the Visual Vernacular art form, the poetry of Dorothy Miles, architectural design in Gallaudet University and the historical and contemporary ‘deaf villages’.

John Walker is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Sussex and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Brighton. He has developed several projects since he started his career at Sussex, including Hidden Histories/Intercultural Dialogue (using oral history methods to capture unwritten narratives), EuroSign Interpreter (interpreting between two signed languages) and Our Space (developing contemporary spaces with the deaf community). John currently convenes an elective pathway in British Sign Language and Deaf Culture.

Wine will be served from 17.00. All welcome.

Comments