Carol A. Padden is a professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

, where she has been teaching since 1983. She was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow, and a 1992 Guggenheim Fellow.

Background

She was born deaf to a Deaf family, and also has a Deaf older brother. Both of her parents were faculty members at Gallaudet University

Gallaudet University

Gallaudet University is a federally-chartered university for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, located in the District of Columbia, U.S...

My parents are both deaf, and I have an older deaf brother, so sign language was a natural part of my upbringing. When I was eight, I transferred from a special school for deaf children to my local public school and for the first time, I was among children and adults who did not sign. I often describe this experience as being “educated abroad,” because it gave me a sense of self and difference that I did not have before.

She was raised bilingually in English and American Sign Language

American Sign Language

American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

. As a child, she was raised in Deaf culture

Deaf culture

Deaf culture describes the social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values and shared institutions of communities that are affected by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label, the word deaf is often written with a...

: the people that she and her family socialized with went to both Deaf schools and Deaf clubs.
Padden is married to Tom Humphries

Tom L. Humphries

Tom L. Humphries is an American academic, author, and lecturer on Deaf culture and communication. Humphries is a professor at the University of California, San Diego .-Early life:Humphries earned his Ph.D...

, who is also Deaf and has been the co-author of several books with her. She also has 1 child of her own who is not deaf

Views on Deaf Culture

Deaf in America: Voices from A Culture was a pioneer in Deaf Studies. This book's goal was to "write about people in a new and different way." Padden and Humphries did not want to focus on writing about their hearing loss, but to focus on their language and their culture. Much has been written since this book, and Deaf Studies has really flourished. However in 1988, this was a relatively new concept.

Neal Conan

Neal Conan

Neal Conan is an American radio journalist, producer, editor, and correspondent. He is senior host of the National Public Radio talk show Talk of the Nation....

:

Let's start with the big question: What is deaf culture? How does the condition of deafness lead to the creation of a culture? Carol, why don't you go first.

Ms. Padden:

Yes, I'll start with that. The concept of culture is a way to capture something that deaf people share, not only deaf people but groups of deaf people that are all over the world. It describes what deaf people have in common, their common history, their sets of ideas, their common practices. Culture itself captures a sense of commonality within a group of people. American Sign Language

American Sign Language

American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

 is a critical part of that commonality.

Carol Padden has experienced Deaf Culture first hand since birth. However in the Deaf Community this is not always the case. Many Deaf people from hearing families do not have exposure to Deaf culture until they become adults. In fact, Carol Padden's spouse Tom Humphries became deaf at the age of six, but did not meet other Deaf people until he entered College. Together they have participated in a new generation of research on signed language.

MacArthur Fellowship

In 2010 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named Carol Padden a recipient of its so-called "genius" grant. The foundation recognized Padden's pioneering work in the morphology and evolution of American Sign Language with a no-strings attached grant of $500,000.

Research

Padden's PhD dissertation on American Sign Language

American Sign Language

American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

morphology and syntax was published in the Garland Press Outstanding Dissertations (Linguistics Series, 1988).
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Selected works

Padden's published writings encompass 43 works in 78 publications in 7 languages and 5,474 library holdings. Several of her publications were created with her husband and co-author, Tom Humphries.

• A Basic Course in American Sign Language (TJ Publishers, 1980) ISBN 9780932666437
• Learning American Sign Language (Allyn & Bacon, 1991, 2nd ed. 2003) ISBN 9780135285718

External links