Carol Padden
General Information
Carol Padden (born 1955 in Washington, D.C.) is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego, where she has been teaching since 1983.
- She was born deaf to a Deaf family, and also has a Deaf older brother.[1]
- Both of her parents were faculty members at Gallaudet University
My parents are both deaf, and I have an older deaf brother, so sign language was a natural part of my upbringing. When I was eight, I transferred from a special school for deaf children to my local public school and for the first time, I was among children and adults who did not sign. I often describe this experience as being “educated abroad,” because it gave me a sense of self and difference that I did not have before.[2]
- She was raised bilingually in English and ASL
- As a child she was raised in Deaf culture. The people that she and her family socialized with went to both Deaf schools and Deaf clubs.[3]
- Padden is married to a man named Tom Humphries.
- Humphries is also Deaf and has been the co-author of several books with his wife.
Views on Deaf Culture
- "Deaf in America: Voices from A Culture" was a pioneer in Deaf Studies. this books goal was to "write about people in a new and different way."[4] Padden and Humphries did not want to focus on writing about their hearing loss, but to focus on their language and their culture.
- CONAN: Let's start with the big question: What is deaf culture? How does the condition of deafness lead to the creation of a culture? Carol, why don't you go first.
Ms. PADDEN: Yes, I'll start with that. The concept of culture is a way to capture something that deaf people share, not only deaf people but groups of deaf people that are all over the world. It describes what deaf people have in common, their common history, their sets of ideas, their common practices. Culture itself captures a sense of commonality within a group of people. American Sign Language is a critical part of that commonality.[5]
Research
Padden's PhD dissertation on American Sign Language morphology and syntax was published in the Garland Press Outstanding Dissertations (Linguistics Series, 1988).
Writings
With her husband and co-author, Tom Humphries:
- A Basic Course in American Sign Language (TJ Publishers, 1980)
- Learning American Sign Language (Allyn & Bacon, 1991, 2nd ed. 2003)
- Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture (Harvard University Press, 1988)
- Inside Deaf Culture (Harvard University Press, 2005)