Ignite Talks by Nancy Frishberg

With a background in modern linguistics, Nancy Frishberg starts from a focus on language (spoken and written) as a window on to human cognition. There are a number of intriguing contrasts that this background suggests, such as acquisition and learning, tradition and change, culture and innateness, context and novelty. Her language of specialty, American Sign Language (ASL), and investigations into other sign languages, gives insight into alternative ways of processing language, contributions of different modalities for expression, and the construction of meaning by individuals, families, and communities.

Her LinkedIn profile summarizes her career starting as she moved into the corporate sector (about 1985). Nancy Frishberg blogs about usability, user experience (UX), and computer-human interaction (CHI) at fishbird.com

Frishberg earned the Ph.D. in linguistics for her work on historical changes in American Sign Language. After graduate school at UCSD, she held several positions in academia from a tenure track research role at NTID (RIT), to a position at Hampshire College (when no tenure was offered, only contracts of varying length), to a role at NYU’s Deafness Research and Training Center (a unit that no longer exists in this location, then funded largely from the Rehabilitation Services Administration). During several years of consulting on topics related to deafness, sign language teaching, and interpreting, she wrote the book Interpreting: An Introduction, (1986 and 1990, 2nd edition) by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). This book is still in print, and forms the basis of the required written examination for certification of sign language interpreters by RID.

Her interests in photography (starting with a Brownie Hawkeye camera), film (starting with her first movie experience at American in Paris), and new media grow out of her fascination with representation, the visual, and media. Ask her about her yearbook collection.