Just another crazy old lady, Carole Bubar-Blodgett talks a lot. Her stories are personal, about the lessons, teachings, and experiences she’s had walking the Good Red Road. Emotion runs through her, especially gratitude. Grandmother Carole was at Standing Rock, where she gifted an Eagle Staff to the youth of the Seventh Generation. “It was always […]
Read MoreImmediacy, Heteroglossia and Calibration
by Steph • August 8th, 2015
Immediacy Almost a month ago I received an email inviting me to join a Google+ group. I was happy to do so, thinking it was a personal invitation rather than one generated by an essentially anonymous algorithm. Arriving to the group (I went to check it out right away), the post that greeted me also […]
Read MoreInterpreting
by Steph • October 4th, 2014
My dissertation is available through Scholarworks at the University of Massachusetts. “Language is the medium and progenitor of discourse.” ~ Evangelina Holvino ~ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation began twenty-five years ago, long before I entered graduate school, with the Deaf and Hearing members of the Bilingual-Bicultural Committee at the Indiana School for the Deaf. […]
Read MoreCommunication Theory and Simultaneous Interpreting
by Steph • November 4th, 2012
Where is your meaning? Communicating with someone who is fluent in a language different from yours through a simultaneous interpreter is a special practice of intercultural communication. An online course from the Learning Lab for Resiliency will use a think tank approach to exploring the intersection of theory with practice. Information and registration instructions are […]
Read MoreSign Language Interpreting and Emergency Management
by Steph • November 2nd, 2012
Language for the Eyes It has only taken decades of advocacy and complaints to the FCC, FEMA, and State governments for public officials to respond to Deaf Americans who rely on sign language for communication. The outburst of public response to professional simultaneous interpretation of a signed language during Hurricane Sandy reveals an astonishing range of […]
Read MorePractice How You’ll Play: Lessons from the Era of Neil Armstrong
by Steph • August 26th, 2012
Dad watched the time as we drove some winding high mountain highway in the Colorado Rockies. He had purchased a black-and-white television that could be powered from the cigarette lighter to bring along just for this trip. As the target time approached, he pulled onto the shoulder, and sent my brother and I to wag […]
Read MorePractice How You’ll Play: Lessons from the Era of Neil Armstrong
by Steph • August 26th, 2012
Dad watched the time as we drove some winding high mountain highway in the Colorado Rockies. He had purchased a black-and-white television that could be powered from the cigarette lighter to bring along just for this trip. As the target time approached, he pulled onto the shoulder, and sent my brother and I to wag down passers-by and invite them to watch the moon walk with us.
Or maybe it was the moon launch. I don’t remember clearly. The picture was grainy, only a few cars drove by and none of the drivers thought it was important to stop. (I can’t recall if there were any passengers; I don’t recall any consultations.) I think we weirded them out. I know that I felt a little embarrassed, what were we doing, this strange behavior out of the norm of everything I’d ever seen?
I was six years old, just trying to grasp what was happening and why it mattered so much.
How did they get the camera there?! That required foresight, pre-planning and imagination: visionary (imagining things in the category of “we don’t know what we don’t know”) and apocalyptic (“things could go bad”). I feel a sense of nostalgia for that kind of epic
Read Moresharp curves and time-out-of-time (TOOT!)
by Steph • August 14th, 2012
Sometimes, sharp conversational curves feel like precipitous cliffs. There is what I do, sometimes, which is to say something spontaneously about something that is going on within the context of a group that is within the realm of things most people have been trained not to say. This is more than a sharp curve, and it calls upon whoever is involved to exercise a deeper level of social resilience. Mental agility has to be combined with emotional savvy, too.
Read MoreA Temporal Turn?
by Steph • May 16th, 2012
“What is the purpose of dialogue?” Are Dialogue Under Occupation conference participants in the process of producing a work of critical art? Or are these conferences solely labor – the repetition of rituals that must be performed in order to satisfy and maintain professional credentials? Could we somehow manage to do both? Examples include the film Rabat, asking questions about symbolism entailed in labels such as the Green Line, and exploring Dr Makram Ouaiss’ point that non-violence is understudied, proven effective, and morally legitimate.
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