BSL Corpus Project

Adam Schembri – Project Director/Principal Investigator

Adam is a hearing sign language researcher from Australia. Over the last two decades, Adam has worked as an English teacher, an Australian Sign Language/English interpreter, a researcher and lecturer. During 2000-2002, he was a lecturer in sign language linguistics at the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of Bristol. He then moved back Australia to work on projects on Australian Sign Language, before returning to the UK in 2006 to work at DCAL at University College London.

For more information about Adam, visit his personal website.

Jordan Fenlon – Research Associate

Jordan is Deaf from a large British Deaf family. He is research associate on the BSL Corpus Project for 2009 and 2010. Jordan has taken over from Sally as data collection co-ordinator, but he will also be responsible for annotation and analysis, working with Ramas. He received his MA in Linguistic Research at the University of Reading in 2005. Jordan is particularly interested in the linguistics of sign languages. Previous research has focused on inalienable possession as well as word order within noun phrases in BSL. Jordan is currently doing a PhD at UCL looking at visual prosody in both sign language and seen speech.

Sally Reynolds – Research Associate

Research associate: data collection co-ordinator (January 2008-February 2009)

Sally is a Deaf researcher on the BSL Corpus Project who is responsible for co-ordinating the data collection. In the mid 1990s, she worked as a researcher at the Centre for Deaf Studies at Bristol University, where she obtained an MPhil looking at Deaf people’s access to health care. More recently while working at the National Deaf Children’s Society, Sally was responsible for managing a number of different projects, which included the Jack Ashley Millennium Awards for Young Deaf People. She was also responsible for overseeing the development of the Family Sign Language Curriculum.

Ramas Rentelis – Research Assistant

Research assistant: video data capture, editing and annotation

I am Deaf from a Deaf family. I received my BA in Primary Education from the Vilnius Pedagogical University, Lithuania, in 2004. During my undergraduate studies, I was primarily interested in developmental issues related to d/Deaf children’s learning and also their Deaf identity development. While working on my degree, I was the first Deaf student from Lithuania to go to Uppsala University, Sweden, as part of a four month exchange programme. I was the first Lithuanian Sign Language tutor for trainee interpreters in Vilnius College, Lithuania as well. I am currently doing a PGDipl in Interpreting with the Deaf Community in Durham University. Upon graduating, I am planning to continue my education and research by pursuing a PhD in sociolinguistics and/or deafblind linguistics.

Jenny Wilkins (née Beech) – Deaf Community Fieldworker

Birmingham/West Midlands fieldworker

Jenny is a native BSL user from a Deaf family and has been involved in various posts in the local Deaf community both professionally and socially. She was born in Birmingham, spent ten years in the Solihull area and now lives in Wolverhampton. In the past ten years, Jenny has worked in the further and adult education sector delivering training courses such as literacy and numeracy to Deaf students, NVQ Levels 3 and 4 BSL, BSL/English interpreting workshops and Deaf awareness.

Mark Nelson – Deaf Community Fieldworker

Greater London fieldworker (2008)

Mark is an active member of the Deaf community with several years of experience of working with Deaf organisations including the British Deaf Association, The Vibe, BBC See Hear, Vee TV and numerous local Deaf clubs. He is also one of the founders and director of the award winning production/multimedia and BSL training company Remark! who regularly sponsor Deaf individuals and events. Mark is proud to be the fourth generation Deaf member of his family. A native of London, he has grown up attending Deaf events socialising with BSL users.

Jacqueline Parker – Deaf Community Fieldworker

Greater Manchester fieldworker

Jacqueline is a native BSL user from a Deaf family and originates from Oldham. After working for British Aerospace for over fifteen years, she went on to work at City College Manchester where she worked as a tutor for Deaf students. More recently she worked at the British Deaf Association (BDA) as a BSL cultural development officer. With a keen interest in sport, she spent many years travelling as a representative for the Great Britain table tennis team competing with other Deaf people.

Hamish Cooke – Deaf Community Fieldworker

Greater London fieldworker (2009)

Hamish comes from a Deaf family and is an active member of the Deaf community. He loves to travel and attends deaf events all over the UK, meeting new deaf people. He used to work for The Vibe and See Hear as a reporter occasionally in his teenager years. He currently works part-time for Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL) as a Deaf Community Liaison Officer. He was asked to step in for Mark Nelson as Greater London fieldworker.

Carolyn Nabarro – Deaf Community Fieldworker

Bristol fieldworker

Carolyn is a native BSL user, and comes from sixth generations of Deaf families. She grew up in Deaf community and has extensive knowledge about Deaf culture and its language. She moved to Bristol from London 15 years ago. Carolyn used to be a reporter/presenter at Tyne Tees Television with Channel 4’s series of 26 weeks magazine programme for Deaf people. She then moved onto BBC See Hear!’s ‘Behind the News’ monthly until 1998. In addition, Carolyn has presented ITV West news headlines for 11 years, and had a small role in the BBC drama ‘Switch’ as Angela. Carolyn currently works as a Deaf Equality Officer at Bristol City Council. Her main role is to focus on the BDA’s BSL Charter ensuring that its services are accessible for BSL users. Currently she is on a secondment with Avon Fire & Rescue working on the Disability Equality Duty ensuring that this is promoted in every area of their work.

Avril Hepner – Deaf Community Fieldworker

Greater Glasgow fieldworker

Avril is a native BSL user from a Deaf family in Glasgow. She has a vast amount of knowledge about the Deaf community, and its culture, as well as several years of experience working with Deaf organisations. Avril is the Director of BSL for the British Deaf Association, with a remit to develop and deliver BSL curricula training to BSL teachers and assessors throughout the UK, for the BSL Academy. In 2003, Avril helped to deliver a Certificate in the Linguistics of BSL course in Wales, working as a trainee under Frances Elton from DCAL. She also works on a regular basis as a BSL/English interpreter for Scottish Television news, and has undertaken a secondment at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston on the BSL:QED project.

Rosemary Stamp – Project PhD Student

I have recently joined DCAL as a project-linked research student focussing on BSL linguistics. In 2008, I graduated from the University of Wolverhampton with a degree in Deaf studies and linguistics, completing my dissertation in verb agreement across sign languages. I am currently studying a Masters in Research at UCL as part of a four-year funded studentship in association with the BSL Corpus Project and DCAL. I hope to start my PhD in September 2009, looking at sociolinguistic variation and change in BSL with evidence from the BSL corpus data.

Delroy Nelson – Project Technician

For more information about Del, visit his webpage.

Co-investigators –

Kearsy Cormier (University College London)
Margaret Deuchar (Bangor University)
Frances Elton (University College London)
Dónall Ó Baoill (Queens University Belfast)
Rachel Sutton-Spence (University of Bristol)
Graham H. Turner (Heriot-Watt University)
Bencie Woll (University College London)

Deaf Advisory Group –

Linda Day
Clark Denmark
Frances Elton
Helen Foulkes
Francis Murphy
Melinda Napier
Tessa Padden
Gary Quinn
Kate Rowley