Information in English text

Dr Steven Emery, BA Hons (Sheffield Hallam), PhD (UCLan)

steve taj

Role:Research Associate

Research Interests: Citizenship and minority group rights in relation to Deaf community; political philosophy and activism; genetics and the future of Deaf people; media and cultural studies

Room: 2F9, Centre for Deaf Studies, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN

Email: epzsde@bristol.ac.uk

Blog: Tiger Deafie

Current research project: Genetics and Deafhood

Adopting both 'insider researcher' and 'studying up' methodologies, the two year project will examine the hegemonic medical model discourse of 'deafness' through the lens of the new 'Deafhood' concept pioneered by CDS. It will locate and examine evidence concerning both Deaf and hearing people's fears that, if left unchecked, genetic technology could speed up liberal eugenicist social policies, as manifested in the discourses surrounding the passing of the recent Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, approved by the UK Parliament in 2008.

For further information see the following link: ‘Genetics, Power and Deafhood: identifying opposition to eugenicist policies’

Previously Managed Research Projects

  • Recognising Group Rights in Educational Policy, with The University of Bristol, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, October 2008-October 2010; [£67,000]
  • Mental Health Needs of Deaf Black Minority Ethnic Community in Glasgow, Heriot-Watt University with Deaf Connections Scotland, Scottish Executive, July 2007; [£7,000]. Full report of the project is online here. [Please note, clicking on the link will take you to an external website in PDF format]
  • Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing on Digital TV, Heriot-Watt University, November 2007 – June 2008, Budget management and Supervision of Research Student

Publications – Sole Authored

  • Emery, S.D. (2011) Citizenship and the Deaf Community, Ishara Press : Nigmegen, The Netherlands. ISBN: 978-90-8656-008-0. [British Sign Language DVD included]
  • Emery, S.D. (2009) ‘In space no-one can see you waving your hands: making citizenship meaningful to Deaf worlds’; Citizenship Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, 31-44
  • Emery, S.D. (2007) ‘Citizenship and Sign Bilingualism: “…There is nothing wrong with being bilingual…it’s a positive and fantastic thing!“ ’, in R. Swanwick and S. Gregory (eds.) Deafness and Education International: Sign Language and Education Special Edition.
  • Emery, S.D. (2007) ‘The loneliness of the long-distance post-graduate student’ in Barnes, L., Harrington, F., and Williams, J. (eds.) Deaf Students in Higher Education: Current Research and Practice. Douglas McLean, Glos., UK
  • Emery, S.D. (2006) Citizenship and the Deaf Community. PhD Thesis, University of Central Lancashire
  • Emery, S. (2003) ‘Working Through the Pain of Change’ in Between a Rock and a Hard Place, 17-21. Deaf Ex-Mainstreamers’ Group, Wakefield
  • Emery, S. (2003) ‘A Personal Account of My Experience as a Deaf Child in a Mainstream (oral) School’ in Between a Rock and a Hard Place, pp 11-13. Deaf Ex-Mainstreamers’ Group, Wakefield
  • Emery, S. (2002) ‘The Deaf Nation 5 Years On’, Deaf Worlds Vol 18 Issue 3, 103-104.

Publications – Joint-Authored

  • Emery, S. D., Middleton, A. & Turner, G.H. (2010) ‘Whose deaf genes are they anyway? The Deaf community challenge to legislation on embryo selection’ in Sign Language Studies 10(1).
  • Middleton, A., Emery, S.D., & Turner, G.H. (2010) ‘Views, Knowledge and Beliefs about Genetics and Genetic Counselling amongst Deaf people’ in Sign Language Studies 10(1).
  • Emery S, Burke Blankmeyer T, Middleton A, Belk R, Turner G (2008) Reproductive Liberty and Deafness: Clause 14(4)(9) of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill should be amended or deleted.  British Medical Journal. Letter to the Editor, published online 21 April 2008
  • Middleton A, Emery S, Turner G.H, Clarke A, Sarangi S, Bitner M, Richards M, Stephens D (2008) Why don’t Deaf People come for Genetic Counselling? European Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 16, Supplement 2, EP05.1.
  • Middleton A, Emery S, Turner G.H, Clarke A, Sarangi S, Bitner M, Richards M, Stephens D (2008) Why don’t Deaf People come for Genetic Counselling? Association of Genetic Nurses and Counsellors Spring Conference, London 14th May

Book Reviews

  • Emery, S. D. (2011) Brueggemann B.J. Deaf Subjects: between identities and spaces. New York University Press, New York and London, 2009. p.189. Disability & Society, 26(02), 243-245.
  • Emery, S. D. (2009) John V. Van Cleve (ed.) The Deaf History Reader. Gallaudet University Press, Washington D.C., 2007. pp. 217. The Sign Language Translator and Interpreter, 3(1), 104-108.
  • Polich, L. (2005) The Emergence of the Deaf Community in Nicaragua: ‘With Sign Language You Can Learn So Much’; in Deafness and Education International 9(3).
  • Taylor, G. and Darby, A. eds. (2003) Deaf Identities; in Deafness and Education International 8(3).

Forthcoming Publications

  • Emery, S.D. ‘Communication practices and empowering research in the context of a sign language community’. [Under revision]
  • Emery, S.D. ‘Minority Group Rights in the case of Sign Language People: an empirical study’. [Under revision]

Research Reports

  • Emery, S.D. (2008) ‘The Mental Health Needs of Deaf Black Minority Ethnic People’. Research report for Deaf Connections, Glasgow and Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. (Report accessible in pdf format - see above under 'previously managed research projects').

Keynote Speaker Conference Presentations

  • ‘Citizenship and minority group rights: empirical findings from a research study’, Supporting Deaf People Online Conference 2011, February 9-12, 2011
  • ‘Citizenship: Potential and Transitions’, City Lit College: Deaf Potentials Open Day, London, UK, April 1, 2009

Recent Sole Conference Presentations

  • ‘Putting the World to Rights: the case of group rights and sign language people, Sign4 Conference 2009’, New Delhi, India, 17-19 December 2009
  • ‘Emerging from the Ashes of Linguistic Imperialism and Lighting the Fires of Sign Bi-lingualism – Sign Language Communities and the case for Linguistic Human Rights and Citizenship’, The 11th International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML 11), Pecs, Hungary, 5-6 July 2007, [Colloquia organizer, chair and presenter]
  • ‘Deaf Communities, Citizenship and Group Rights’, International Society for Third Sector Research, Toronto, Canada, 14 July 2004

Recent Joint-Authored Presentations

  • ‘Realising social and language justice:  utilising policy in the case of Sign Language Peoples’, Multilingualism in Europe: prospects and practices in East-Central Europe, by the Research Centre for Multilingualism of the Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the Mercator Network of Language Diversity Centres and the European Commission, Budapest, Hungary, March 25-26, 2011, [Joint-authored with Dr Sarah Batterbury]
  • ‘The End of Deafness? Transition in Times of Genetic Legislation’, Deaf and Other Lives: Living in Multiple Cultures Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September 25-26, 2008, [Joint-authored with Anna Middleton and Graham H. Turner]
  • ‘Deaf people and Genetic Counselling: research findings’, Cardiff Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wednesday 18th September, 2008, [Joint, with Dr Anna Middleton, and colleagues in the Genetics Steering Group]
  • ‘The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill: Genetic Selection and the Deaf Community’, 4th International Deaf Academics’ conference, Dublin, Ireland, 25-27 June 2008, [Joint-presentation with Alison Bryan and Teresa Blankmeyer-Burke]
  • ' “I was told I had a moral responsibility to society to abort my son as he would be deaf”: the Deaf/Genetics interface’, Society for Social Studies and Science (4S) 2007 Conference, Montreal, Canada, 11-13 October 2007, [Joint-authored with Anna Middleton and Graham H. Turner]
  • ‘It’s not over till it’s over: realising British Sign Language’, Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research 9, Florianopolis, Brazil, 7 December 2006, [Joint-authored with Graham H. Turner]
  • ‘Cross-Cultural Collaboration within Deaf Studies Departments – what does Deaf Academics mean in practice’, 3rd International Deaf Academics Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 12 August 2006, [Joint-presented with Nicola Nunn; joint-authored with Nicola Nunn and Gavin Lilley)
  • ‘Rights and Citizenship in the Sign Language Community’, Sociolinguistics Symposium 16, University of Limerick, Ireland, 8 July 2006, [Joint-authored with Graham H. Turner]
  • ‘On the global politics of sign language plurilingualism and Deaf Identities: reflection and analysis at an atypical intersection in social theory’, Language and Global Communication Conference, Cardiff, Wales, 8 July 2005, [Joint-authored with Graham H. Turner]

Other Notable Research Projects [under supervision]

  • ‘Deaf People’s Attitudes to Genetics and Genetic Counselling’, November 2006 – September 2008, Role: Research Associate, Supervisor: Dr Anna Middleton, Heriot-Watt University and Cardiff University
  • ‘A Sociolinguistic History of British Sign Language from 1950 to the present day’, Role: Researcher, October 2005 – December 2007, Supervisor: Professor Graham Turner, University of Central Lancashire and Heriot-Watt University

 

Project Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_160272884023591

More information about the 'Genetics, Power and Deafhood’ project