Tag: Creative Inquiry

A Return to Martha’s Vineyard

Last April, Assistant Professor of ASL Jody Cripps and seven ASL students traveled to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, as part of their Creative Inquiry course to initiate a community outreach program aiming to help revive the historic signed language community on the island. This Spring, a new team of students led the way: on April 9-15, Professor Cripps and six of his Creative Inquiry students returned to Martha’s Vineyard for Clemson’s third visit. The group’s project allowed for students to engage in unique and important field research while collaborating with local cultural and historical institutions.

The Deaf Legacy of Martha’s Vineyard at a Glance

Martha’s Vineyard, an island of just over 17,000 residents off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has a rich history in deaf genealogy and signed language that goes back centuries.

The earliest deaf settlers in Martha’s Vineyard arrived in the late 1690s, the first of which was Jonathan Lambert, for whom Lambert’s Cove, visited by Professor Cripps and his students, was named. Due to the prevalence of hereditary deafness in the genealogy of many of the island’s residents, the number of deaf individuals rose from the late 17^th century onwards until its decline in the 19^th century. The last native islander with deaf genes was Eva S. West-Look, who died in 1950. Martha’s Vineyard Signed Language (MVSL) is a unique piece of the legacy which arose from this community, and in the past, it was used by both hearing and non-hearing members of the community to varying degrees. The last resident who knew and used Martha’s Vineyard Signed Language was Katie West, who died in 1952.

Today, the deaf legacy is kept alive in Martha’s Vineyard through various cultural and historical institutions which preserve and educate the public about deaf history on the island. Katie West’s home was purchased by the town in 1956 and is now the Chilmark Library, which houses the Chilmark Deaf/Signed Language Community Digital Archive. The Martha’s Vineyard Museum maintains several important artifacts related to deaf history on the island, including Alexander Graham Bell’s notebook on his investigations into deaf genealogy on the island in the 1880s. Other local landmarks and historic places make tangible efforts to acknowledge their links to past deaf residents and history.

Past Creative Inquiry Projects

Last year, Professor Cripps and his Creative Inquiry students spearheaded several community outreach opportunities working alongside local institutions with the aim of promoting deaf history in the community and reviving the signed language tradition on the island.

Professor Cripps and his students visited and collaborated with local institutions such as Martha’s Vineyard Signs Then & Now, a project under a public access MVTV station, where they had the opportunity to interview local deaf residents, discuss the history of the deaf community with Joan Poole-Nash, the Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language Archivist, and talk about Clemson’s Creative Inquiry outreach projects on the program. They also had the chance to collaborate with the Chilmark Library and the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, whose efforts to “bridge the gap” comprise a mix of promoting historical awareness and fostering a strong and accessible community for both deaf and hearing residents through various outreach programs.

Creative Inquiry Filling in the Gaps

This year’s Creative Inquiry team consisted of six of Professor Cripps’ ASL students: Allison Rambo, Stacy Lawrence, Brie Moose, Tariq Copeland, Emerald Withers, and Cassie Fischer. Their project aimed to investigate the direct genealogy linking the Lambert and West families, expanding Lane et al.’s (2010) work on the history of the two families’ link to deaf genetics. The team used historical and genealogical sources found in the Chilmark Library, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, and town hall in their research. They also used information from the US Census Bureau to verify genealogical connections and hearing status as well as fill in gaps in Lane et al.’s work, such as census numbers and birth/death dates. Source material from books by Alexander Graham Bell (1884) and Charles Banks (2021) was also utilized in research on the West family.

The results of their research were exhibited in a poster presentation entitled “From Lambert to West Families: Deaf Genes on Martha’s Vineyard, 1700s to 1950s” by Professor Cripps and his students at the Research Symposium at Watt Family Innovation Center on May 10, 2023.

The CI team’s other outreach activities focused on interacting with residents and institutions to brainstorm and demonstrate ways to facilitate the use of signed language among community members. In one instance, students met with medical professionals from Vineyard Complementary Medicine, with whom they exchanged ideas for future sessions on learning ASL and training with deaf patients. Students also had the opportunity to teach some sign language basics by presenting “Try Your Hand at Sign Language” at Oak Bluffs Library.

Future exciting collaborations are in the works: Professor Cripps and student Allison Rambo worked with Lynn Throp, producer of MV Signs Then and Now, and Bow Van Riper, Research Librarian of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, on a booklet highlighting the daily life and enrollment of Martha’s Vineyard deaf students at the American School of the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1825 to 1892. The booklet will be issued later this year. Additionally, last April, Professor Cripps and several past CI students had a meeting with Bow Van Riper to discuss and brainstorm a museum exhibition about the deaf islanders. This exhibition will be opened on July 1, 2023, and continue through February 18, 2024.

Further Information and Useful Links 

For more information on Dr. Cripps and his students’ Creative Inquiry projects in Martha’s Vineyard, please see the team’s website.

For more information on the future exhibit on deaf islanders in the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, please see the museum’s website.

Department of Languages senior Natalie Ann Claypool received the Norris Medal at the University’s Spring Awards Ceremony on May 9, 2022.

The Norris Medal, which is awarded to the best overall student as determined by the University Scholarships and Awards Committee, is considered the most prestigious award for graduating Clemson seniors. Recipients of the award have demonstrated outstanding and exceptional leadership, academic, and personal qualities as the top scholar in their graduating class.

Natalie is a Language and International Health major with a concentration in Spanish. Her studies have also included four Creative Inquiry projects across different disciplines, which have allowed her to pursue ambitious research projects in sexual health, child development, public health, and education inequality. Some of her work has been published in academic journals, including a piece co-authored with Associate Professor of Spanish and Community Health Arelis Moore de Peralta which explores the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on Latinx children.

Natalie’s studies and research projects have led to an interest in combatting education inequality in the local community. Natalie combined her passion for education and community service by co-founding the Youth Scholars Program at Pendleton Elementary School with interim associate dean of undergraduate and graduate studies Mathew LeMahieu, The Youth Scholars Program seeks to motivate and inspire young students about their educational futures. Natalie’s outstanding commitment to service and betterment of the community, in particular for vulnerable children, will continue after graduation. She will be completing a year-long fellowship at Casa de Esperanza in Houston, where she will work with abused, neglected and HIV-positive children.

Natalie plans to graduate in August after completing her final undergraduate semester studying abroad at Universidad Blas Pascal in Córdoba, Argentina.

The Department of Languages congratulates this exceptional and inspirational scholar as her journey continues.

For more information about Natalie and her incredible achievements, please see the Clemson News release.

In April, Assistant Professor of ASL Jody Cripps and seven ASL students traveled to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, to initiate a Community Outreach program as part of their Creative Inquiry course. This CI project will aid in reviving Martha’s Vineyard as the signed language community it once was.

A Signed Language History in the Community

Martha’s Vineyard, an island of just over 17,000 residents off the coast of Cape Cod, has a rich history in signed language that goes back centuries. As home to one of the earliest deaf communities, a regional signed language, known as Martha’s Vineyard Signed Language (MVSL), flourished in the community until the mid-20^th century and was used both by the large number of signing deaf individuals residing on the island and by hearing members of the community.

In recent years, the number of signers on the island has declined, which has not only heralded the waning of a rich tradition, but also impacted the deaf community and signing residents of the island. Martha’s Vineyard used to have a wide population of signing individuals, and this made local shops and businesses more accessible. However, many businesses and community members have been unfamiliar with signed languages in recent years. This makes it very difficult for deaf and signing individuals’ full access to the community.

Reviving a Tradition and a Plan to Spread Knowledge

In Martha’s Vineyard, cultural institutions and community members, such as the Martha’s Vineyard Signs Then & Now, a project under a public access MVTV station, are actively working to bring signed language back to the island. These efforts span educating the community and visitors on the island’s rich history and traditions through museum outreach and educational programs, as well as current programs to increase the use and reach of signed language in the community.

These efforts are an opportunity for the residents of the community to begin bridging the various communication gaps and enable them to extend a welcoming atmosphere to the many deaf and ASL signing people who visit or reside in Martha’s Vineyard. With the collaboration from the community partners (e.g., MV Signs Then & Now, MVTV station, town libraries, and the Chamber of Commerce), the community has the opportunity to create a model that promotes a society with a signed language-friendly environment.

Knowledge of signed language can bring together the community, and there are many ways to promote the growth and use of signed language in everyday settings for both hearing and signing community members. Residents can be encouraged to use signed language in daily life with their signing family members and friends and those with voice and developmental challenges; in loud restaurants and sports events; in quiet and private situations; and, importantly, with business people, caregivers, medical professionals, first responders and residents in order to bridge the communication gap with their Deaf and ASL signing visitors, patrons and patients to make the island a signed language-friendly environment for everyone.

What Future Research Holds

These promising efforts will be spearheaded by researchers from various institutions, including the projects of our own ASL program. These projects aim to supply the Martha’s Vineyard community with a variety of resources to educate and spread the word about signed language and how its use can positively impact the community.

The researchers will work with the entire community on the island to target what the residents need and want to see from our projects. The projects will be executed in an educational and informative fashion. There will be multiple signed language seminars or webinars that the researchers will host, and the participants can be anyone from the community, but especially ones from local businesses.

Furthermore, the seminars and webinars will not be the only resources. The goal is to create a variety of resources that everyone will have access to that they can use at their leisure. These resources will come in many different forms depending on the available platforms we can reach on the island. Outreach is significant, and our projects will also be advertised to spread the word about the efforts that are being made to make Martha’s Vineyard a signed language community again. Spreading the knowledge of signed languages is vital in order to preserve the history of this island and community.

Here is an exciting look at some of what our ASL students and Dr. Cripps experienced during their trip:

All photos courtesy of Jody Cripps.

Further information on some of the historical and cultural institutions visited by Dr. Cripps and his students:

Martha’s Vineyard Museum – some artifacts related to Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language can be found in the museum. A portrait of Joseph “Josie” West, a deaf farmer, is on the permanent display, as well as Alexander Graham Bell’s notebook on his investigations for deaf people on the island in the 1880s.

Chilmark Library – The town purchased the house of Katie West, the last deaf descendant with deaf genes and a native of Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language, and turned it into the library in 1956. This library maintains the Chilmark Deaf/Signed Language Community Digital Archive.

Jamie Plummer, a psychology major and Spanish minor, completed her research in SPAN 4970 (Creative Inquiry Project: The Hispanic World through Film, Literature, and Media) offered by Dr. Graciela Tissera in the Spring 2019 semester. Jamie presented her research paper “Machismo, Poverty, and Gender Violence in City of God (2002) by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund” at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research at Kennesaw State University, April 10-13, 2019. Her presentation discussed the impact of machismo, poverty, and gender violence on the lives of people portrayed in the film City of God (Cidade de Deus), directed by Meirelles and Lund (Brazil, 2002). Based on the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, the film portrays life in a favela in Rio de Janeiro and the realities of urban poverty. Examples of these realities include juvenile delinquency, gang violence, gender violence, drug trafficking, and power corruption. Jamie’s research explored characters, conflicts, themes, symbols, and techniques in the context of the social environment, connections among diverse groups of people, levels of education, and economic resources. Her presentation at the national conference was made possible through a travel grant awarded by the Creative Inquiry Program.