Interview with the Editor
Donald F. Moores
Editor, American Annals of the Deaf
Coeditor, Educational and Developmental
Aspects of Deafness
GUPress: How long have you been the editor for the Annals?
Dr. Moores: I have been editor since 1990.
GUPress: Deaf education has undergone significant changes in the
last forty years, but has the shift from residential schooling to mainstreaming
to inclusion affected actual student performance indicators and outcomes? Are
deaf students better prepared now for postsecondary education and the real world
than they were forty years ago?
Dr. Moores: I believe that deaf students today ARE better prepared
now for postsecondary education and the world than they were forty years ago,
but I do not think we can attribute the improvement to changes in school
placement, per se. There have been significant advances in technology,
especially in the last decade, and our teachers are better prepared. Students
have several placement options available as well as access to different
communication forms in the classroom. In the past, some of the residential and
day school center programs did not offer a curriculum up to the standards of the
regular public school curriculum, but this has changed with new federal requirements.
Forty years ago the only postsecondary options for a deaf student were Gallaudet
or enrollment in a hearing university without support. The world has opened up
and the result has been a growing number of deaf lawyers, business people,
physicians, university professors, CPAs, etc.
We still have tremendous challenges in educating deaf children, but I am
optimistic about the future.
GUPress: What criteria do you use to select manuscripts for the
Annals?
Dr. Moores: We have about twenty-five professionals who review
manuscripts for the Annals. When we receive a manuscript it is sent to
two reviewers, without the author identification, who have a background in the
area covered by the manuscript. The reviewers have a form to follow. After they
make their recommendations, it is my responsibility to communicate with the
authors. For manuscripts that are published we usually work through one or two
revisions. In a typical year we received about 75 to 80 manuscripts and publish
about 30.
GUPress: Do the writers published in the Annals reflect the
various education placements available to deaf students?
Dr. Moores: Most of the writers are university based. A smaller
number of writers are school based. About 25% of the manuscripts we receive are
from other countries. There appear to be no differences in the topics addressed.
GUPress: What kinds of articles would you like to publish in the
future? Are there particular topics that have not been covered that you believe
should be addressed in the Annals?
Dr. Moores: The Annals is designed to provide a balance
between research and practice. We receive a substantial number of research based
manuscripts and are always encouraging submission of material related to
application of knowledge to the classroom. This is especially important now with
the federal mandates for access to the general curriculum and SUCCESS in the
general curriculum. We particularly welcome manuscripts addressing content areas
such as math, science, literature, and social studies. |
 6:9
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
“A Moving and Loving Memoir”
In Deaf
Hearing Boy: A Memoir, the second volume in the
Deaf Lives series,
author R. H. Miller recounts the complex dynamics at work in his family,
including the generational conflicts in which he found himself caught in the middle. “This story follows my
years with my Deaf parents from my birth in 1938 until my departure for college
in 1956, with a final chapter by way of bringing to a close my long association
with them over their eighty-plus years of life,” begins Miller in his
introduction. “I hope it will help my daughters understand what my early life was
like as they come to know better the unusual relationship that existed between
me and my parents, my parents and their grandparents, and me and my
grandparents. I hope, too, that, in some small way, my experiences will assist
students of the Deaf community so they can understand more clearly the tensions
that exist between Deaf parents and their Hearing children and so they in turn
will be better able to recognize the special needs of these children and their
parents.”
Just published, Deaf Hearing Boy already has
garnered the following acclaim from Louisville, Kentucky’s The
Courier-Journal:
“In the course of this history, Miller tells a touching story about his own
coming-of-age, and corrects many of our misconceptions — for one, deaf parents rarely have deaf children (this one,
his grandparents worried over ceaselessly)....Miller has written a moving and
loving memoir. The book is a testament to the parents who, while deaf, instilled
in him a love of language and an empathetic heart.” You can read the review in
its entirety
here.
Also, read part of Miller’s compelling account as the oldest of four hearing
boys born to deaf parents in chapter seven,
“A New Life”,
and take advantage of your exclusive subscriber discount when you
order Deaf Hearing Boy.
 Studies
in Second Language Acquisition, a Cambridge University Press journal,
features a ringing endorsement of Turn-Taking,
Fingerspelling, and Contact in Signed Languages, edited by Ceil
Lucas. “The
Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities series published by Gallaudet
University Press is, first and foremost, the leading collection of published
work dealing explicitly with sociolinguistic issues in Deaf communities around
the world,” writes Timothy Reagan of University of Connecticut. “This volume....carries
on the impressive tradition of the earlier works in the series.” His final words
are, “This is a timely and significant work, and one that deserves a substantial
reading audience.” The
full review is available
online.
In the eighth volume in the series, a diverse
group of scholars measure the influence on deaf groups already familiar with
bilingual education of recent worldwide, Deaf sociopolitical
movements advocating signed languages. Read more about Turn-Taking, Fingerspelling, and Contact in Signed Languages
in part three,
“Discourse Analysis”,
and place your order
here.
 The
date for the fourth Gallaudet University Press Institute international
conference, Narrating
Deaf Lives: Biography, Autobiography, and Documentary, is fast approaching.
To be held on November 3-5, 2004 at the
Kellogg Conference Hotel at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., the keynote
speakers will be 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.
You can
register on-line now. For more
information about the conference, go to
http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/gupiconference/index.html or contact Wendy
Grande at wendy.grande@gallaudet.edu.
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