To the Lexicon and Beyond: Sociolinguistics in European Deaf Communities

Contributors

Contributors IRIS ANTOONS Iris Antoons is a doctoral student in the Department of Germanic Languages at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where she also received a Master ’s degree in Germanic languages in 2000. She then worked for the Vlaams GebarentaalCentrum (Flemish Sign Language Center) on a project to develop teaching materials for courses in Flemish Sign Language. She is currently carrying out a research project on bimodal and bilingual language acquisition of prelingually deaf children, which is underwritten by the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders. DIANE BOONEN In 1987 Diane Boonen began working for Fevlado, the Flemish Deaf Association , as an administrative employee in one of the regional offices. She first became involved in linguistic research on Flemish Sign Language (VGT) when Myriam Vermeerbergen asked her to act as the main informant for a study on prepositions in VGT in 1988. In 1992 Boonen began teaching Flemish Sign Language in the Department of Germanic Languages at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In the following five years she regularly participated in various research activities on the grammar of Flemish Sign Language. In 1997 Fevlado agreed to give her an opportunity to concentrate on the linguistic study and teaching of Flemish Sign Language, and she became a full-time collaborator of Vermeerbergen at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. KRISTOF DE WEERDT Kristof De Weerdt is a second-generation, Deaf native signer. He began working for the English Department of Ghent University in October 1999 as a researcher in a project focusing on lexicographic aspects of Flemish Sign Language. He is an active member of the Flemish Deaf com265 munity, past president of the Flemish Deaf Youth Organization (JongFevlado ), and a member of the Turnhout chapter of Fevlado, the Flemish Deaf Association. SANGEETA BAGGA-GUPTA Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta cochairs the KKOM-DS (Communication, Culture , and Diversity-Deaf Studies) Research group at the Department of Education, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. She is an Associate Professor at Örebro University and was the Powrie V. Doctor chair in Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University from 2001 to 2002. In 1995 she received her Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Linköping University, Sweden . Her research interests include human communication and identity issues, multilingualism, literacies, and interaction in educational settings. VICTÒRIA GRAS I FERRER Victòria Gras i Ferrer is a doctoral student at the University of Barcelona. She has been a sign-language interpreter since 1998 and a teacher in the interpreter-training program since 2001. She has worked as a linguist for the Spanish Association of the Deaf and the Catalan Federation of the Deaf, for whom she developed sign-language teaching materials. She spearheaded the Language Census of Sign Language Users in Spain project , which part of her dissertation addresses. CARMEL GREHAN Carmel Grehan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Deaf Studies from the University of Bristol and a Diploma in Irish Sign Language (ISL) Teaching from the University College Cork, University of Bristol. Having previously worked on a research project on poverty in the Irish Deaf Community sponsored by the Irish Deaf Society, she is currently an ISL tutor at the Centre for Deaf Studies, University of Dublin, where she is involved in the development and delivery of ISL courses for native and nonnative signers. 266 : c o n t r i b u t o r s MIEKE VAN HERREWEGHE Mieke Van Herreweghe received a Ph.D. from Ghent University, Belgium , in 1996 with a dissertation titled ‘‘Prelingually Deaf Pupils and Dutch: A Syntactic Study.’’ From 1996 until 2002 she was a postdoctoral researcher, and since October 2002 she has been a Professor in the English Department at Ghent University. Her research specializes in the contrastive analysis of certain aspects of Flemish Sign Language in comparison with Dutch, sociolinguistic aspects of Flemish Sign Language , and sign-language interpretation. She is also a certified sign-language interpreter and one of the founding members of the Flemish Sign Language Center, a nonprofit organization founded in 1997. KARIN HOYER Karin Hoyer is a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She received a degree in sign-language interpreting in 1993 and a Master ’s degree in General Linguistics in 1999. From 1998 to 2002 she worked as a sign-language researcher in a project involving the lexicon of Finland-Swedish Sign Language (FinSSL) at the Finnish Association of the Deaf. She is the editor of the...