THIS YEAR’S PRESENTER: CLAYTON VALLI
ASL Immersion Weekend 1996
Born deaf in Newburyport, Massachusetts and raised in Seabrook, New Hampshire, Clayton Valli graduated from Austine School for the Deaf in Brattleboro, Vermont in 1971. He graduated with a B.A. degree in Social Psychology in 1978 from the University of Nevada-Reno, and with an M.A. degree in Linguistics in 1985 from Gallaudet University. He completed his doctorate in Linguistics and ASL Poetics at the Union Institute in Cincinnati Ohio in 1993 and is working as an assistant professor at the Gallaudet University Department of ASL, Linguistics, and Interpretation. Dr. Valli has served as a consultant and a researcher for various sign language research projects, and has presented a variety of workshops and lectures related to ASL Linguistics, ASL Poetry, and Sociolinguistics of the Deaf Community throughout the U.S. and abroad. He has several published books and tapes. As a well-known Deaf American poet, he also has been presenting his performances in ASL poetry. Clayton Valli currently resides in Washington, D.C. and still dreams that someday ASL art and literature will be taught in every school for the Deaf.