The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia ed. by Genie Gertz and Patrick Boudreault

Abstract

The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia, ed. Genie Gertz and Patrick Boudreault (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2016, 1,128 pages)pah! Finally, a compendium has been published documenting, within a single source, scholarly knowledge exclusively about Deaf people. Editors Genie Gertz and Patrick Boudreault, their editorial board, and their many contributors and consultants have created a valuable reference that impressively substantiates Deaf studies as a well-developed scholarly discipline. It also compellingly documents the lives of Deaf people as an integral part of the tapestry of both US and world history.The publication of the SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia comes at an opportune time, given the emergence in recent years of numerous undergraduate and graduate programs incorporating topics such as Deaf history, culture, art, literature, and linguistics into their academic curricula. Furthermore, it has been nearly thirty years since a comparable publication, The Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness, edited by JohnV.Van Cleve, was published. Since that time, numerous new developments have occurred in diverse disciplines such as public policy, technology, sign language research, and Deaf rights activism. Furthermore, the ways in which Deaf people currently engage in scholarly discourse about themselves as a distinct cultural and linguistic group encompass multidisciplinary perspectives and is international in scope.The availability of the SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia is also timely, given that one of its ultimate aims is to facilitate the use of more contemporary perspectives and analytical frameworks for talking about and understanding Deaf people and their place in society. In that regard, among the appealing features of the publication are the Deafcentric perspectives exemplified in the various entries.Readers will readily note that the SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia is voluminous. It comprises more than 330 entries spread across 1,070 pages that are organized into three volumes. For scholars and students with extensive knowledge of and involvement in the field of Deaf studies, navigating through the encyclopedia will be a worthwhile and enlightening journey. On the other hand, for those who may be new to or have only rudimentary knowledge of the myriad of topics germane to the field of Deaf studies, navigating through the encyclopedia may be a daunting task. Fortunately, the editors provide some helpful features for both those with extensive knowledge of Deaf studies and those who may have only minimal knowledge of the field.One of the helpful features is the availability of a reader's guide on pages xi-xv in volume 1, which organizes the 330-plus entries into twenty-four major areas. A second helpful feature is an index at the end of volume 3, which provides the entry titles and their volume and page numbers to facilitate the reader's search for topics of interest. A third helpful feature is the use of cross-references to related topics, which are listed at the end of each entry. This feature encourages exploration of diverse perspectives on topics with comparable themes.Additionally, in promotional materials by SAGE Publications announcing the launch of the new encyclopedia, the editors identified four goals for the reference work: (1) to chronicle the exponential growth in the quality of Deaf individuals' lives; (2) to document the history and stories of Deaf lives that are furthering the advancement of Deaf people; (3) to document the countless ways in which the Deaf experience is enhanced by the scholarship of Deaf studies; and (4) to locate Deaf studies as a key field within the broader, formalized area of minority studies. …