New website!

We've been working on a new website with our new name ("EdSign Lectures"). It's still under construction, but you can take a look now at https://sites.google.com/site/edsignlectures/. Let us know what you think!

Storytelling in BSL

Richard Carter is a Deaf teacher of British Sign Language (BSL) at Elmfield School, Bristol. He is also a well-known storyteller in the UK Deaf community and has performed at many Deaf venues over the past ten years.


Presenter: Richard Carter
Title: Storytelling in BSL
Date: 23rd February 2011
Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre PLG34, Paterson's Land, Moray House School of Education, EH8 8AQ (how to get there)
BSL/English Interpreters: Kyra Pollitt, Yvonne Waddell

All welcome!

Download the poster

£100 prize draw!

Calling all deaf people aged 18 - 28 in Scotland!

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are doing a survey to find out about young deaf people's lives. If you are deaf or partially deaf, aged 18 - 28 and you went to school in Scotland, they are asking you to fill in an online questionnaire.

The questionnaire is in English and in British Sign Language. Your name will be entered into a £100 prize draw if you complete the survey. The questionnaire is online at www.deafachieve.org.uk

Download the poster

The Future of British Sign Language in an Inclusive Scotland

Event: The Future of British Sign Language in an Inclusive Scotland
Date: 15th November 2010
Time: 5.30pm - 7.30pm
Venue: The Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburgh
Catering: Tea, coffee and sandwiches will be provided (free of charge)
Support needs: BSL Interpreters, induction loop and infrared systems will be available

Download the flyer

Who should come?
Deaf and Hard of Hearing organisations and individuals, policymakers, civil servants, academics, public sector organisations and individuals with an interest and experience in this area.

Places are limited, so if you wish to attend please contact Donald Jarvie. Contact details are on the flyer.

BSL Tutors' Vision for Scotland

Event: Open meeting for BSL Tutors
Date: 27th November 2010
Time: 10.30am - 12.30pm
Venue: Tayside Deaf Association, 36 Roseangle, Dundee, DD1 4LY

Download the flyer

“What is the BSL Tutors’ Vision for Scotland?”
Are you –
· A BSL user?
· Teaching BSL in Scotland?
Do you want to –
· See the future for BSL teachers/tutors in Scotland?
· Share your comments/ideas/opinions with other BSL teachers/ tutors in Scotland?
… then you are most welcome to attend this meeting.

Public Engagement Challenge results

As you may know, EdSign34 was partly funded last year by a grant from the Edinburgh Beltane Beacon for Public Engagement as one of their Pilot Public Engagement Challenge Projects. There were seven entries, and the winner was announced last Wednesday at the Edinburgh Beltane Annual Gathering.

Sadly we didn't win, though we were a close runner-up. However, the overall winner was the BSL:UPTAKE project Knowledge Exchange Cafe, and we extend our congratulations to our friends there. They won £2000 of funding to run another event -- good news for the Deaf community!

You can read more about the winners here and here.

The Public Engagement Challenge Contestants

Competition results

Thanks to everyone who suggested a new name for our group, and all who voted on the suggestions. There were lots of good ideas. We can now announce that the winning name is...

EdSign

We are currently working on plans for the new session which we will announce as soon as we can. This year we hope to have a majority of Deaf presenters. We have lots of ideas already, but if there are people you think we should invite, please do get in touch!

We are also looking for new sources of funding to allow us to pay the interpreters and contribute towards the travel and accommodation costs for our presenters. If you know of any charities or businesses who might be able to help, do let us know.

Ladies' Night

Fundraising event for St Vincent's Centre for the Deaf.

Event: Ladies' Night Shopping and Pamper Evening
Date: Friday 1st October 2010
Time: 7pm - 11pm
Venue: Jury's Inn Hotel, Jamaica St, Glasgow (1st floor)

Download the flyer

Vote now!

BSL Cafe, 21st August 2010

Event: BSL Cafe
Date: Saturday 21st August 2010
Time: 1pm - 6pm
Venue: Deaf Action, 49 Albany Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3QY

Bob Duncan from BSL:UPTAKE writes:

As well as learning more about how to use the Internet to research issues relating to Deaf people, you can find out more about the proposed BSL Bill for Scotland, and have your say in BSL on camera if you wish; meet the team who are running research into the education of D/deaf students in Scotland; learn more about Deaf Action's 175th anniversary celebrations; and meet many others who share your interests.

We do hope you can come along for a really interesting enjoyable day, help yourself to our free buffet - and go on to see more of the sights of Festival Edinburgh if you have the time. Please pass this information to anybody else who may be interested.

Further information and contact details are on the flyer below.

Download the flyer

Competition!

Can you help us think of a new name for our group?

The EdSign34 lecture series has now come to an end. We hope you have found it useful, interesting and encouraging -- please let us know by filling in our short feedback survey!

We are planning to continue on after the summer break, and we need a new name. As it will be 35 years since Mary Brennan's groundbreaking work that gave British Sign Language its name, we could just become EdSign35. But we thought we'd give you a chance to show us how creative you can be!

We're looking for a name that will be easy to remember, easy to search for online (so no funny spelling please!) and that has some kind of link to what our group is about. If you have an idea for a logo to go with your suggestion, that would be fantastic too.

You can add your suggestions in the comments below, or send them to us by email at EdSign34 (at) googlemail (dot) com. The winning entry will be announced here at the end of August, and there will be a small prize for the winner.

We're looking forward to seeing what you come up with!



To start you thinking, here are some of the words people used when we asked them to describe the EdSign34 series, visualised using Wordle.

Feedback survey

Please can you take a few minutes to fill in the feedback survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GX5ZBZS to let us know what you thought of the events in 2010 and how we can improve things for next time. The survey will close at the end of July. Thanks!

Video clips from Onno Crasborn's presentation

Some photos from the EdSign34 open lecture by Onno Crasborn at Heriot-Watt University on 12th May 2010, titled "Deaf views on language politics in the Netherlands", are now available at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2321168&id=61012449&l=106b25efca.

There is also a selection of film clips below.

Deaf views on language politics in the Netherlands

Onno Crasborn is Associate Professor at Radboud University Nijmegen and holder of the Mary Brennan Memorial Fellowship for 2010 from the Deafness, Cognition and Language (DCAL) research centre at UCL in London.

Presenter: Onno Crasborn
Title: Deaf views on language politics in the Netherlands
Date: 12th May 2010
Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Venue: Business Executive Centre, Heriot-Watt University, EH14 4AS (how to get there)
BSL/English Interpreter: Kyra Pollitt

All welcome!

Download the poster

UPDATE: You can see some photos and video clips from the seminar at http://edsign34.blogspot.com/2010/05/video-clips-from-onno-crasborns.html.

UPDATE: View the slides

Video clips from Emily Nordmann's presentation

Some photos from the EdSign34 open lecture by Emily Nordmann at Moray House, University of Edinburgh, on 5th May 2010, titled "Time of the Signs", are now available at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320058&id=61012449&l=4829c6dbe8.

There is also a selection of film clips below.

Time of the signs

Emily Nordmann is a psycholinguist from the University of Aberdeen. She will tell us about her PhD work on timing of sign language production.

Presenter: Emily Nordmann
Title: Time of the signs: Investigating the temporal structure of sign language production
Date: 5th May 2010
Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Venue: Godfrey Thomson Hall, Moray House School of Education, EH8 8AQ (how to get there)
BSL/English Interpreters: Kyra Pollitt, Yvonne Waddell, Annelies Klomphaar
BSL/International Sign Interpreter: Clare Canton

All welcome!

Download the poster

UPDATE: You can see some photos and video clips from the seminar at http://edsign34.blogspot.com/2010/05/video-clips-from-emily-nordmanns.html.

UPDATE: View the slides

Video clips from David Brien's presentation

Some photos from the EdSign34 open lecture by David Brien at Queen Margaret University on 21st April 2010, titled "The Past in the Present", are now available at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2318648&id=61012449&l=df70119282.

There is also a selection of film clips below.

The Past in the Present

David Brien worked at the Deaf Studies Research Unit, University of Durham for over twenty years and was co-director of the Unit with Dr Mary Brennan.

Presenter: David Brien
Title: The Past in the Present
Date: 21st April 2010
Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm
Venue: Queen Margaret University, EH21 6UU (how to get there)
BSL/English Interpreters: Lucy Cole and Yvonne Waddell

All welcome!

Download the poster

UPDATE: You can see some photos and video clips from the seminar at http://edsign34.blogspot.com/2010/04/video-clips-from-david-briens.html.

Video clips from Donna Jo Napoli's presentation

Some photos from the EdSign34 open lecture by Professor Donna Jo Napoli at Moray House, University of Edinburgh, on 14th April 2010, titled "Symmetry in Sign Language", are now available at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2317023&id=61012449&l=0ce671e2d1.

There is also a selection of film clips below.

Symmetry in Sign Language

Donna Jo Napoli is Professor of Linguistics at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Newcastle.

Presenter: Prof Donna Jo Napoli
Title: Symmetry in Sign Language
Date: 14th April 2010
Time: 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Venue: Godfrey Thomson Hall, Moray House School of Education, EH8 8AQ (how to get there)
BSL/English Interpreters: Lucy Cole and Yvonne Waddell

All welcome!

Download the poster

UPDATE: You can see some photos and video clips from the seminar at http://edsign34.blogspot.com/2010/04/video-clips-from-donna-jo-napolis.html.