Call for Papers & Posters

Dr Steven Collins and Dr Risa Shaw have agreed to serve as the WASLI 2011 Scientific Committee* Co-Chairs. Both work at Gallaudet University teaching Deaf and non-deaf interpreters in the Department of Interpretation. We thank them for taking on this important volunteer week for WASLI. Together with several committee members from around the world, they will assess the presentation proposals and plan a great conference for you!

At the conclusion of the conference, Dr Steven Collins and Mary Thumann will produce the conference proceedings and you will be able to order that from the WASLI website.

So check out the Call below and consider putting in a proposal. This conference will also see a new programme feature – that of poster sessions. The Call for Papers/Posters is also available in International Sign.

We welcome your submissions to be part of the WASLI 2011 conference program.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The WASLI 2011 Scientific Committee is seeking submissions for papers to be presented at the 2011 WASLI conference. We invite a wide variety of topics, formats, and presenters from around the world and with various backgrounds. The conference encourages the sharing of ideas for collaboration across countries, cultures, and languages from consumers, practitioners, educators, and researchers. Our aim is to put together a slate of presentations that reflect the diversity of the world in which we live.

This Call invites proposals for papers and posters to be presented at the conference. Thematic areas include (but are not limited to):

Deaf peoples’ experience with interpreters and interpreter education and research
Local ways of promoting education, certification, consumer knowledge and involvement
How we teach and here is what we do in our areas
Innovative and new ideas, work in progress
Ethics
Mentoring
Resources
Developing the field of interpreting worldwide
Collaborative work
Development of interpreting, research, and practices for interpreting and teaching,
Emerging practices and research
Deaf and hearing team interpreters
Deaf Interpreters and researchers

Please note that all areas apply to Deaf and hearing interpreters, Deaf and hearing educators and Deaf and hearing researchers. We do not make a distinction or separation of Deaf and hearing people in any area. However, we do encourage presentations and posters that focus specifically on Deaf interpreters, educators, students, and research.

Length of papers to be given at the conference: Length of presentations will be 30 minutes. This time includes questions and answers. Papers may include video clips to show examples.

Format for posters: Posters will be displayed in a common area for attendees to view. Posters are to be designed so that they will be displayed for the conference participants to view during the day. Poster presentations will not be interactive except during lunch time and after the presentations are over for the day. We encourage posters that include video clips for display as well as print and encourage DVD and paper handouts.

The official conference languages are International Sign and spoken English. All presenters who use a different signed or spoken language will need to supply their own interpreter.

Presenters will need to register for the conference. There is no waiver of conference fees.

PROCEDURE

Papers and posters require the following information in the proposal:

Proposal Information Form obtainable here (Word)
Name of presenter(s) & affiliation(s) & country(s)
Brief CV for each presenter (maximum 1 minute video of yourself or 1 page per person)
Contact details for first author for correspondence
Title of presentation
Language of presentation
Abstract – in your signed language or International Sign (2 minute maximum video) OR written English (500-word maximum, one-page, unreduced)

Proposals should be submitted in International Sign as a Quicktime file (when possible sent as an email attachment) OR in written English in a Word document (when possible sent as an email attachment). Electronic submissions are preferred, although other alternatives for submission are provided (see address and fax number below).

DEADLINE: Proposals for presentations and posters must be received electronically or postmarked by 15 September 2010.

ACCEPTANCE: Notifications will be made by 30 October 2010, and selected presentations and posters must confirm by 30 November 2010.

The Scientific Committee will review all proposals. The committee is comprised of Deaf and hearing individuals from each WASLI region.

Presenters will submit a copy of their paper 6 weeks in advance of the conference for interpreter preparation. After the conference, authors will also be asked to submit a full written paper for publication in a book of conference proceedings.

Presenters will meet with interpreters on-site to prepare interpreters for all presentations.

CONTACT: Scientific Committee Chairs:

Dr. Steven D. Collins and Dr. Risa Shaw

Email (preferred): Steven.Collins@Gallaudet.edu, Risa.Shaw@Gallaudet.edu

Fax: +1 202-651-5172, marked FOR THE ATTENTION OF STEVEN COLLINS and RISA SHAW

Post: WASLI Conference 2011 Scientific Committee

c/o Steven D. Collins and Risa Shaw

Department of Interpretation

Gallaudet University

800 Florida Avenue NE

Washington, D.C. 20002

USA

VP: Steven Collins: +1 202-250-2492; Risa Shaw: +1 202-559-5627

Updates will be posted on: www.wasli.org

* BIOGRAPHIES

Steven D. Collins, Ph.D., CDI, currently works as Assistant Professor in the Department of Interpretation at Gallaudet University where he is the departmental chair of the bachelors and masters degree programs. Dr Collins is a Fullbright Scholar who has worked extensively with deaf-blind communities in the U.S. and Italy, with a specialty in Tactile American Sign Language (TASL) interpretation. His doctoral research focused on sociolinguistic variation in the use of non-manual signals in TASL. He is also a Certified Deaf Interpreter.
Risa Shaw is Associate Professor at Gallaudet University in the Department of Interpretation. She came to Gallaudet as a full time faculty member in 2001, and subsequently co-authored the BA curriculum and the revised MA curriculum in interpretation at Gallaudet University. Dr Shaw also has extensive expertise as an interpreter and interpreter educator in the areas of team interpreting, analysis of interpretations, preparation, consecutive interpretation, and Deaf/hearing teams. She continues her interpreting practice, which she has based in the Washington, D.C. area since 1981.
Mary Thumann has worked as an interpreter in a wide variety of settings since 1979. She worked as a full-time staff interpreter at Gallaudet Interpreting Service from 1998 - 2004 and has taught full time with the Department of Interpretation since 2005. Ms. Thumann is working on her doctoral degree at Gallaudet University in the Department of Linguistics and is especially interested in fingerspelling in ASL and mental spaces and depiction in ASL discourse.

Proposal Information Form