Dorothy Casterline

Dorothy Chiyoko Sueoka Casterline (born c. 1927)[1] is a deaf linguist known for her contribution to A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, considered a foundational work of sign language linguistics.

Casterline was born Dorothy Sueoka in the late 1920s, to parents of Japanese descent, and she grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii.[1][2][3][4] After graduating from the Hawaii School for the Deaf and the Blind, then known as the Diamond Head School for the Deaf, she obtained a bachelor's degree in English from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., in 1958.[2][3][5] As Hawaii was not yet a U.S. state at the time, she was considered one of the first international students to attend the university, as well as the first deaf Hawaiian student to graduate.[5]

Around this time, she wed fellow Gallaudet graduate Jim Casterline, whom she was married to until his death in 2012.[6][7]

Casterline went on to spend over 30 years teaching English and researching American Sign Language at Gallaudet.[2][1] She was involved in the growth and development of the university's Linguistic Research Laboratory.[1]

While at Gallaudet, she and her colleague Carl Croneberg were recruited by the linguist William Stokoe to contribute to his Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles.[2][1][8] Published in 1965, the dictionary is considered a seminal text in the study of ASL, which promoted greater interest in and respect for the language.[2][3][8][9] It was innovative in treating ASL as a real and natural language, rather than a variant of English.[3][10] Casterline played an important role as a deaf collaborator with the hearing professor Stokoe over the several years it took to produce the dictionary.[3] Stokoe also valued the multicultural makeup of his team, with Casterline's Asian Pacific Islander background and Croneburg's Swedish one.[11]

In 2022, Casterline was given an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Gallaudet, in recognition of her contributions to ASL linguistics and deaf studies.[5]

References
  1. "Gallaudet University Commencement Ceremonies Program Book". Gallaudet University. 2022-05-02. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  2. "Deaf/Signing Community: Support Recognition of Dorothy "Dot" Sueoka Casterline". RIT Libraries. 2022-03-25. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  3. Hochgesang, Julie A.; Miller, Marvin T. (2016). "A Celebration of the Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles: Fifty Years Later". Sign Language Studies. 16 (4): 563–591. ISSN 0302-1475. JSTOR 26191234 – via JSTOR.
  4. "Political correctness enters world of deaf". Baltimore Sun. 1994-01-03.
  5. "Commencement". Gallaudet University. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  6. "James L. Casterline Jr". The State. 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  7. Tepe, Heather (2002-10-02). "Storytelling at the library, American Sign Language-style". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  8. Risen, Clay (2022-08-29). "Carl Croneberg, Explorer of Deaf Culture, Dies at 92". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  9. Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove; Phillipson, Robert (2022-11-14). The Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-75390-2.
  10. Sanchez, Rebecca (2011). ""Human Bodies Are Words": Towards a Theory of Non-Verbal Voice". CEA Critic. 73 (3): 33–47. ISSN 0007-8069. JSTOR 44378451.
  11. Stokoe, William C. (1993). "Dictionary Making, then and Now". Sign Language Studies (79): 127–146. ISSN 0302-1475. JSTOR 26204580.
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