Jeffrey Edward Davis

Thanks for your interest in Hand Talk: Sign Language among American Indian Nations, published by Cambridge University Press (2010). For the past two decades, I’ve been studying the historical and contemporary uses of sign language among American Indian groups -- culminating in this book.

I was born and raised in the Greater New Orleans area, where my ancestors have lived since the early 1800s. I learned sign language from a neighbor during childhood, and began working as a professional sign language interpreter in the the mid-1970s. I attended the University of Texas and lived in Austin until 1980, then grad school at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC where I earned an MA in linguistics in 1984. I completed the PhD in linguistics at the University of New Mexico in 1990. I taught in the Master's Degree Program in Interpretation in the Department of Linguistics and Interpreting at Gallaudet University until 1990. I’ve served on the faculties of the Sign Language/Deaf Studies program in the College of Education at the University of Arizona (1990 – 1994) and the Sign Language Interpretation Program at Miami-Dade College (1994 – 2000).

Since 2000, I’ve been a professor of sign language, linguistics, and interpretation at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I'm happily living in the Great Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee. I love to travel around the US and the world –frequently visiting two of my favorite cities – Washington, DC and New Orleans. When I’m not teaching or conducting historical, anthropology, and sign language linguistic research, I enjoy spending time in the great outdoors. Besides writing, my passions include Cajun cooking, sharing home cooked meals with family and friends, practicing yoga, and attending meditation retreats.