Hi all! As some of you know, I am (slowly) working on a book about SW – its development and use across different international sites (including the transnational listserv). As part of this research I’ve traveled to visit Valerie and some other list members, such as Stefan and Maria. I’d love to visit everyone on the list (at least, every one who was willing!) but unfortunately my limited funding won’t allow that. Still, I really want as many interested SignWriters as possible to participate in the book. To that end, I have an idea and I’m curious what you all think about it.

What if we selected some kind of passage that all of you who were willing could translate into your respective sign language and write up using SW? I could devote a chapter of the book to these different texts, which would allow for a comparison across both different sign languages and different ways of using SW. Each writer could perhaps reflect on the choices they made in translating and writing their document, including perhaps how their backgrounds/goals affect these choices. And perhaps participants could also provide their own thoughts about what we can learn from the comparison of these texts.

This is just my initial idea – if you have other ideas please let me know!

Thanks!
Erika

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Erika Hoffmann-Dilloway
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Oberlin College