In Memoriam:
Dr. David A. Stewart
Dr. David Alan Stewart, a member of Gallaudet University’s Board of Trustees since
May 1998, died unexpectedly on Monday, June 7, 2004 at his home in Mason,
Michigan. He was 50 years old.
Dr. Stewart was Professor and Director of the graduate Deaf Education program at
Michigan State University and a prolific author of dozens of journal and
research publications, and six books, including
Literacy
and Your Deaf Child: What Every Parent Should Know,
The Signing Family: What Every
Parent Should Know about Sign Communication,
Language in Motion: Exploring
the Nature of Sign, and
Deaf Sport: The Impact of
Sports Within the Deaf Community. In 2003, Dr. Stewart
discussed
the importance of literacy as a critical part of a child’s education,
the impetus for his latest book co-authored with Bryan R. Clarke, Literacy and
Your Deaf Child (see review opposite). Dr. Stewart believed that every child has
special strengths and every child can attain their goals and aspirations. He
received several scholarly awards in his career, including the David Peikoff
Chair of Deafness Studies at University of Alberta, Canada.
Dr. Stewart also directed a number of federal and university funded research
projects on American Sign Language (ASL). He researched interactive video and
computer applications for deaf children and hearing associates who wished to
learn sign communication. He also was a pioneer in creating software on-line
and other computer applications for learning ASL. His 1995 software, the Personal
Communicator, received the
“Computer Software of the Year” award from Discover magazine. He did extensive
research and teaching in the use of ASL and English-based forms of sign
communication.
Dr. Stewart received his diploma for Deaf Education in 1978, Master of Arts in
1982, and doctorate in Education in 1985, all from the University of British
Columbia. He began his career teaching deaf children at Jericho School of the
Deaf and worked with families of deaf children for 25 years.
In addition to his deep love of family and vocation, Dr. Stewart was an avid
hockey player and coach. He served as Technical Director of ice hockey at four
editions of the Winter Deaflympic Games.
Dr. Stewart is survived by his wife Elizabeth (Bazley); children Rachel (19),
Rebecca (16), Jennifer (15), and Michael (12); parents Stanley and Elsie
Stewart of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; sisters Diane Little, Sherry
Stewart, and Amandah Tanner; many nieces and nephews; sister- and brother-in-law
Caroline Bazley and Fredrick Bazley; and parents-in-law Jean Watson and Walter
Bazley of Ontario, Canada. |
 6:7
Friday, July 30, 2004
Alternative View of Literacy Among Deaf People Explored
The Shifts in Deaf Cultural Identity
Dwelling upon deaf students’ literacy in the educational environment defined by
the hearing majority is not the best approach, say researchers in a new book
Literacy and
Deaf People: Cultural and Contextual Perspectives. Edited by Brenda Jo Brueggemann, Associate
Professor of English at Ohio State University, this compelling collection
advocates for an alternative view of deaf people’s literacy, one that emphasizes
recent shifts in Deaf cultural identity.
In her introduction, Brenda Jo Brueggemann, who also
edits the new Deaf Lives series
for Gallaudet University Press, expounds further on the motivation for this
volume stating, “Deaf people’s literacy: This is no new subject. Typically
approached as a problem or even a paradox in much of the long-stretching
literature, literacy and deaf people have never danced smoothly together.
Perhaps because literacy itself is usually defined as (and by) the dominant
culture’s literacy, bound to standard spoken and written forms of a language and
certain skill levels at those standard forms, literacy studies have most often defined deaf people as lacking. Yet
in the past, Deaf studies scholars such as Timothy Reagan, Donald F. Moores, and Kathryn P. Meadow-Orlans have been concerned about the
pathological definitions of deafness that are inherent in the English language
itself and embedded in our educational systems. They have sought to explore
literacy and deafness from contextual and cultural models that look beyond a
sometimes simplistic deficit model that leaves deaf people only and always
lacking.”
Divided into two parts, Literacy and Deaf People covers a range of topics from how deaf
children learn to how literacy can be extended to deaf people beyond the age of
20. Read more about this insightful collection in chapter two,
What Does Culture
Have to Do with the Education of Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing?.
Then, take advantage of your exclusive 20% subscriber discount when you
order Literacy and Deaf People.
 A
recent review from the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
recognized the significance of David A. Stewart and Bryan R. Clarke’s
Literacy and Your Deaf
Child: What Every Parent Should Know. “All children need substantial help
from their parents to enter school ready to read and write. It is not easy to
make a complicated topic such as literacy accessible to parents. That is why
a book such as Literacy and Your Deaf Child: What Every Parent Should Know
has the potential to be beneficial.” This guide equips parents with the
information they need to ensure that their deaf or hard of hearing child becomes
a proficient reader and writer and develops overall literacy skills that will
enable him to function in an increasingly print-oriented world. Read chapter
eight, Writing, and
order
Literacy and Your Deaf Child.
  Holocaust and Genocide Studies,
published by Oxford University Press, bestowed honors upon both
Deaf People in
Hitler’s Europe, edited by Donna F. Ryan and John S. Schuchman and
Surviving in
Silence, by Eleanor C. Dunai. “Individual accounts that conjure up important
events are essential, especially for the study of the Holocaust. They are the
stuff of history, but only part of the entire tapestry of history per se. Both
of these books are necessary for our understanding of the story of deaf people
during that Holocaust; they are an excellent starting point for further research
and reflection,” was the reaction of the reviewer. Read more on the topic of the Holocaust
and deaf experiences in
Part III from
Deaf People in Hitler’s Europe,
chapter eight of
Surviving in Silence, and from Horst Biesold’s
Crying Hands, chapter
one. Also, order a copy of each --
Deaf
People,
Surviving
in Silence,
Crying
Hands -- today.
 Narrating
Deaf Lives: Biography, Autobiography, and Documentary, the fourth Gallaudet University Press
Institute international conference, will be held on November 3-5, 2004, at the
Kellogg Conference Hotel at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. Keynote
speakers include Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind, Emmanuelle
Laborit, actor and author of
The Cry of the Gull, and
Larry Hott, Director of the documentary film History Through Deaf Eyes.
Register on-line now through September 1, 2004,
and receive a 10% discount off the regular registration fee of $250. For more
information about the conference, go to
http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/gupiconference/index.html.
Just visiting?
Subscribe now to the Gallaudet University Press
E-newsletter and receive exclusive updates, book excerpts, and
discounts...absolutely free.
Read previous Gallaudet University Press E-newsletters:
Fall 2004 Catalog
HomePage
Contact the webmaster at
gupress@gallaudet.edu
Copyright 1999-2004 Gallaudet
University. All rights reserved. |
