UVSC welcomed the deaf world this weekend during Deaf Studies Today!'s 2008 conference, Montage.
The event was hosted by UVSC and sponsored by BYU, Salt Lake Community College and various other national companies.
According the event's program, the name Montage was selected because of the word's definition as well as the wide variety of events included in the conference.
"A montage takes fragments and parts of art, text and poetry to form a new composite and continuous whole," according to the catalogue of events. "A skillfully shaped montage can at once blend the diverse into a single entity, worthy of study and reflection."
The 2008 conference theme was illustrated by the event's broad variety of speakers, break-out sessions and activities.
Keynote speakers addressed issues and subjects from deafhood and deaf studies to the situation of deaf people in Ghana as well as challenging religious experiences for deaf Jews and Muslims.
The conference also featured the De'VIA Deaf Artists' Exibit at the Woodbury Art Museum, a deaf play entitled, "Stone Deaf," as well as Deaf Studies Today! International Deaf Film Festival in UVSC's Center Stage.
Charles Donaldson, a junior at UVSC majoring in English with an emphasis in American Sign Language, said he was fascinated by the culture that the conference brought to the campus.
"It is interesting to see the challenges that the deaf culture is faced with everyday that we can never really understand," Donaldson said. "Listening and watching the lectures gave me a better understanding what some of these people deal with globally."
Additional information on deaf studies and culture can be found on Deaf Studies' Web site, www.deafstudies.org.
Copyright Brigham Young University 16 Apr 2008
