MIKE GULLIVER

The politics of Deaf history – archives
MIKE GULLIVER Wednesday, taking advantage of a trip to London, I found myself in the UCL Ear Institute and Action on Hearing Loss archives. It struck me sitting there, that although I’ve known about that archive for some 10 years, that was the first time I’d ever been in it – and I wondered why. And I [...]
Thu, May 09 2013
effejessyweld liked this

Lunchtime translation – the 1892 summer fête
MIKE GULLIVER Prompted by the BSL Pride event, I thought I’d do today’s lunchtime translation on the 1892 summer fête. This was the first, ever, French summer fête – and originated from an American idea that, by the 1890s, was attracting over 800 Deaf people. The French fête was organised by the Association Amicale, which was (approximately) [...]
Mon, Mar 25 2013

Deaf Geographies Workshop – Call for Papers (CFP)
MIKE GULLIVER This is a *DO NOT MISS* opportunity to be right there, at the first ever international workshop on Deaf Geographies. And it won’t cost you more than £50!! Please read this Call For Papers below, and if you can contribute, get in touch with Mary Beth. I hope to see you there! — Dear Friends, [...]
Mon, Mar 25 2013

Early Day Motion – reworded
MIKE GULLIVER Re:  [link] I know it’s a pipe dream, that the machine of government might actually care about what normal mortals think… but just in case it does, in response to the extremely polite, somewhat misleading, and half-way house EDM from Malcolm Bruce which – really – misses the core point that recognition simply hasn’t happened properly [...]
Thu, Mar 21 2013

BSL ‘recognition’ – ten years on
MIKE GULLIVER (Image, from [link] a post worth reading in its own right) So, yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the recognition of BSL by the UK government, of the provision of a £1.5 million support fund to encourage BSL, and of the successful end of the BSL recognition campaign. Wasn’t it? Not really. It was the [...]
Tue, Mar 19 2013

Deafscape, and early Deaf Geographies articles
MIKE GULLIVER By happy chance, in looking for material for another presentation, I dug out the original Deafscape articles that I wrote in 2005, and an introduction to Deaf Geographies from (about) 2007. I’ve created an ‘articles’ page, to which I’ll add other papers etc. as they arise. Reading through them, it strikes me how much my [...]
Fri, Mar 01 2013

Deaf Geographies presentations – Heriot Watt, 5th and 6th...
MIKE GULLIVER In case anyone is interested – I’ll be presenting at Heriot Watt in March. On the 5th, I’ll be at EdSign – https://sites.google.com/site/edsignlectures/ presenting on Deaf space – a tool for Deaf community empowerment Imagine for a moment that, somewhere in the world, there was a continent where visual communication was the norm, and where [...]
Tue, Feb 19 2013

Deaf-mute Banquet 1836 – ongoing
MIKE GULLIVER Whoops, I hit return, which published the post – which I hadn’t written. If you’re reading this – then come back in a bit, and it’ll be here.  
Thu, Jan 24 2013

Field School in Deaf Geographies
MIKE GULLIVER Reblogged from Deaf geographies sandbox: Program The Bader International Study Centre of Queen’s University (Canada) announces an innovative new Field School in Deaf Geographies to be offered during the summer of 2013. The very first of its kind, this exciting opportunity is an intensive five-week, six credit unit programme, allowing students to engage with analytic...
Fri, Jan 11 2013

Deaf-Mute Banquet (Paris) 1836 – Translation started
MIKE GULLIVER Having let the blog grow cold at the end of 2012 for a number of reasons… I’ve started overhauling it, and will be posting to it again. The first thing to dust off are the ongoing translations of the banquets, which have so far reached this stage: Introduction to 1842 publication (French / English) Banquet [...]
Wed, Jan 09 2013

Academic vs. Politics: Or, will someone please tie my...
MIKE GULLIVER Following the ‘Throwing it all away’ post, I’ve received a number of comments, some questions, and some requests for clarification. There has also been some criticism – warranted, I think – which leads me to write this post, which I will enter by means of an anecdote (bear with me). — If you don’t know, [...]
Tue, Sep 11 2012

Throwing it all away
MIKE GULLIVER Drip… drip… This post finds me at my desk… cold, and wet, and none too impressed with my shoes – which seem to have started shipping water, although – to be fair to them – there’s a lot of it out there… But… that’s no problem. Because inside I am buzzing! … and sad. But [...]
Wed, Aug 29 2012

Predoctoral position in the history of deafness and/or...
MIKE GULLIVER Please note, this isn’t something that I can advise on – I’m posting it here to link to it, as I can’t find it hosted anywhere else. — BEGINS — Predoctoral position for two years (with possible extension) Starting date February 1, 2013 (or earlier) Outstanding junior scholars are invited to apply. The position is [...]
Tue, Aug 21 2012

Traces of Bob
MIKE GULLIVER A post of a personal nature… As someone who is avowedly ‘sound-sensitive‘ (and also an introvert), I need at least some quiet time in the day where I’m not bombarded by interaction with others to get my mental bookshelves back in order. Since having children, that headspace has been harder to find. Generally it comes [...]
Thu, Aug 16 2012

Games we play with spaces – abstract
MIKE GULLIVER The last month or so has been quiet on the blog – I have a good excuse, a new member of our family: Zebedee Noah, arrived (very quickly) on the 16th July, some 12 days after his due date (and I was so hoping for a 4th July baby, and then a 14th July baby… [...]
Wed, Aug 01 2012

1836, Parisian deaf-mute banquet – French transcription...
MIKE GULLIVER I've just finished transcribing the French account of the 3rd deaf-mute, de l'Epée anniversary banquet, held on the 4th December 1836. You'll find a .pdf of the original text at: [link] I'll start working on the translation, which I'll try and drip feed here, before releasing a full bilingual version when it's complete. In the [....
Wed, Jun 27 2012

Translating ‘sourd-muet’
MIKE GULLIVER Those of you reading my initial translations of the banquets will have noticed that there's a pretty central issue that I avoid. Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on how you look at it) – I've been outed in this by Don Grushkin, who put a comment on the 1835 banquet translation asking why I leave ‘sourd-muet' [...]
Wed, Jun 20 2012

A reply (of sorts) from Ofsted
MIKE GULLIVER Today, following my complaint to Ofsted about the ridiculous cartoon BSL-based consultation documents that they've been putting online – they wrote to me. The letter is unfortunately, the same as other people have received. It's a just-about acknowledgment that they did something that maybe some people didn't like – and a sort-of promise ...
Mon, Jun 18 2012

1835 Deaf Banquets – Translation available
MIKE GULLIVER The initial translation of the 1835 de l'Epée anniversary banquet is now ready. You'll find it at [link] The 1836 banquet may be a little while as I have nothing pre-prepared and so have to start from scratch. In the meantime, I'll try and set up a page for this, so all of the banquet [...]
Thu, Jun 14 2012

Deaf Banquets 1835 – and a glimpse of Berthier’s poem
MIKE GULLIVER The transcription of the French account of the 1835 banquet is now complete, and available here. The translation is nearly done. I'll put it up as soon as it's ready. In the meantime, you could always try using the online translation tools that I cover in [link] access a rough version of the text. And... [...]
Wed, Jun 13 2012

An open letter to Ofsted
MIKE GULLIVER Here, an open letter to Ofsted, regarding their extraordinary publication – yesterday – of a consultation document aimed at Deaf children and young Deaf people (follow the link on that page, third down). Rather than simply carry out the consultation in BSL, Ofsted chose to write the document ‘in BSL' – as a series of [...]
Tue, Jun 12 2012

Parisian, 19th century Deaf banquets – a different...
MIKE GULLIVER In previous attempts to digitise and release a translation of the 19th century French Deaf banquets, I've always attempted to do so without digitising the original. Laziness really... a shortcut, originally adopted to save time, I've realised that not only does this prevent others from getting their hands on the original documentation – which isn...
Thu, Jun 07 2012

Yesterday was also #captionTHIS day in the Basque country
MIKE GULLIVER Yesterday, those following any deaf-associated Twitter accounts will have seen that they were full of the #captionTHIS hashtag. #captionTHIS is a campaign to make those involved in all kinds of visual media aware of just how important captions are to deaf people (or hearing who may also want visual language support on TV, film, video [...]
Thu, Jun 07 2012

Yesterday was also #captionTHIS day in the Basque country
MIKE GULLIVER Yesterday, those following any deaf-associated Twitter accounts will have seen that they were full of the #captionTHIS hashtag. #captionTHIS is a campaign to make those involved in all kinds of visual media aware of just how important captions are to deaf people (or hearing who may also want visual language support on TV, film, video [...]
Thu, Jun 07 2012

1834 Banquet
MIKE GULLIVER I'm not sure how far I got with publishing this last year – but here are the completed French transcription in pdf form, and a provisional early bilingual text with the French and English presented together. The 1834 banquet contains a wonderful cameo appearance from Louis Daguerre, one of the fathers of photography. Following the [...]
Thu, May 31 2012

What happens if the SL recognition app works?
MIKE GULLIVER There's been a lot of chat in the Deaf-related press in the last couple of days about the announcement that an app is going to be developed that will allow a simple camera-equipped smart phone to ‘translate sign language into text'. You can find one of the many reports at [link] Lots of the discussion [...]
Mon, Mar 26 2012

What happens if the SL recognition app works – part II
MIKE GULLIVER This is in response to Mary Beth Kitzel's post at [link] And also extends some thoughts that I've had, particularly since Austin Kocher's  presentation on the spaces inhabited by interpreters at this year's AAG. Austin's paper was great – but also worrying. In it, he gave an outline of the level, and type of cultural [...]
Mon, Mar 26 2012

Reinforcements… and an interesting challenge
MIKE GULLIVER With Christmas intervening – and then a frantic new year of catching up, I'm only just getting to the point now where I can come back to the blog. And I do so with news... I have reinforcements In the last week, the long awaited replacement Client Support Officer has started at work. The hope [...]
Sat, Mar 17 2012

What happens if the SL recognition app works – part II
MIKE GULLIVER This is in response to Mary Beth Kitzel's post at [link] And also extends some thoughts that I've had, particularly since Austin Kocher's  presentation on the spaces inhabited by interpreters at this year's AAG. Austin's paper was great – but also worrying. In it, he gave an outline of the level, and type of cultural [...]
Sat, Mar 17 2012

What happens if the SL recognition app works?
MIKE GULLIVER There's been a lot of chat in the Deaf-related press in the last couple of days about the announcement that an app is going to be developed that will allow a simple camera-equipped smart phone to ‘translate sign language into text'. You can find one of the many reports at [link] Lots of the discussion [...]
Fri, Mar 16 2012