Event
The ASL Program in the Department of Linguistics at Penn is pleased to announce the spring ASL Lecture Series event to be presented by Dr. Anna Lim, Lecturer in Deaf Studies in Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development
Dr. Lim’s presentation, “The Curious Case of a Multilingual and Multiethnic Deaf Immigrant,” will be held on Thursday, March 14, from 5:30-7:30 PM as an in-person only event at the University of Pennsylvania, Meyerson Hall, B-1, 210 South 34th Street, Philadelphia.
The abstract and bio are detailed below and a flier is attached.
The lecture will be presented in ASL with ASL/English interpretation provided. It is free and open to the public. No registration is required to attend.
If you have questions, please contact Dr. Jami Fisher, Director of ASL, Department of Linguistics: jami@sas.upenn.edu
Abstract:
In this lecture, I will recount the translanguaging practices of my multiethnic and multigenerational signing deaf family in Manila, Philippines. I will expound on the definitions of “translanguaging” as seen from certain contexts in the deaf communities. I then will examine the impact of a multilingual upbringing and translanguaging practices on how family members function in various milieus, particularly in education. I discuss how language use throughout my childhood has impacted my experiences with languaging after immigrating to the United States as an adult. Interspersed in this personal narrative are traipses into historical and sociological observations about the Filipino community’s view of the deaf identity and how deaf Filipinos have been and are still being regarded. Finally, I explore the promulgation and implementation of the language policies in my motherland and assimilation efforts of immigrant parents on the translanguaging practices of the Filipino deaf here in the United States. I describe the ways in which home discourse practices affect the educational experiences of deaf Filipino immigrants in the U.S.
Bio:
Anna is a Filipino-Chinese multilingual deaf-of-deaf queer femme immigrant linguist mama & wife from Manila, Philippines. She is currently based in Boston, Massachusetts as a lecturer in Deaf Studies in Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. She received her PhD degree in Educational Studies from Boston University with her research on the manifestations and ramifications of raciolinguistic ideologies in the experiences of immigrant deaf students of color in the U.S. Deaf education system. She graduated from Ateneo de Manila University (Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines) with an AB degree in Psychology and from Gallaudet University (Washington, DC) with honors with an MA degree in Linguistics.
Her research interests encompass multilingualism of deaf people of color, cognitive linguistics in heritage language acquisition and learning, linguistic justice, Tagalog linguistics, and Filipino history & culture education for deaf Filipinos.
She is part of the core team of YOU FINISH EAT?, a platform for sharing resources on critical, expansive, and nuanced discourses about social justice by and for Asian and Pacific Islander communities via American Sign Language. In the future, she hopes to further the Philippine historical, cultural, and heritage language education of deaf Filipino immigrants and their children.