My interest in research is fueled by my lifelong curiosity about the natural and social phenomena that form our world and a desire to use knowledge to change lives.
Scholarship
Cognition and Online Course Design:
lessons from deaf spaces
This presentation applied findings from my PhD research to the online learning environment, providing insights from studies of deaf geographies and cognitive psychology.
When visual information is integrated into one area of visual focus, viewers experience improved learning and information retention. This presentation explores ways in which online course provision through platforms such as Zoom can be improved by integrating the instructor, slide presentations, and other information into one visual frame. Presented in ASL, with English voiceover and English captions.
Sign Language Interpreter Space:
a phenomenological case study of interpreted theatre
Inspired by more than thirty-five years of stage interpreting, my recent research investigates the ways in which space production by sign language interpreters influences meaning in interpreted interactions—resulting in a theoretical description of interpreter geography and interpreter space.
Other research interests: sign language poetry techniques in English to ASL translation; the foreign language effect; cognition and the spectator experience; and, natural language processing. December 2020.
View my research profile on signs@HWU:
Action Oriented Community Research
Research Action Team: LEAD-K Michigan
As part of a three-member Research Action Team, I provide research support to other action teams implementing Michigan’s LEAD-K legislation. LEAD-K seeks to ensure that Deaf and Hard of Hearing children are prepared as they enter Kindergarten. The action teams will create resources for parents of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children; develop language development milestones for Deaf and Hard of Hearing children; and, identify English and American Sign Language language assessments for measure children’s development progress.
A Census and Needs Assessment:
for Michigan’s Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Communities
A statewide research project focusing on the lives of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing people in Michigan in two parts: a census and a survey. Produced in partnership with Public Sector Consultants and commission by the Division on Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing (Michigan Department of Civil Rights). My roles included project development, literature review, oversight of advisory committee, and supervision of survey translation. September 2019.
[ VIEW REPORT ]
Nonprofits and Technology
United Way Community Services
A statewide survey of nonprofits in Michigan with seperate analysis for southeast Michigan, in partnership with Public Sector Consultants. Topics include: perceptions, issues, and uses of technology; Y2K; technology inventories; the internet; support and training; and information and data. December 1999.
