Dr Rachel Sutton-Spence

Research summary

Rachel's research is in British Sign Language (BSL), her main interest currently in Deaf folklore and creative sign language - poetry, narratives and humour.

Current research projects:

• ESRC - BSL corpus Project
• AHRC - Metaphor in Creative Sign Language

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Biography

Rachel Sutton-Spence has worked at the University of Bristol since 1989.  She was in the Centre for Deaf Studies until 2008 and she has recently joined GSoE from Centre for Personal and Professional Development.

She has worked on BSL variation and change and has also published on mouth patterns in BSL, and other influences of English on BSL.  For the last decade she has worked on creative BSL, working especially with compositions by Dorothy Miles and now with contemporary BSL poets.  She teaches Sign Language Linguistics at undergraduate and post-graduate levels, and to professionals working with BSL and members of ...

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Selected publications

• Sutton-Spence, RL 2013, ‘House and Home in Sign Language Poetry’. in: Orquídea Coelho, Madalena Klein (eds) Cartografias da Surdez: (Cartographies of Deafness): Comunidades, Línguas, Práticas e Pedagogias (Communities, Languages, Practices and Pedagogies). CIIE/FPCEUP/Editora Livpsic
• Kaneko, M & Sutton-Spence, R 2012, ‘Iconicity and Metaphor in Sign Language Poetry’. Metaphor and Symbol.

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View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system