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Douglas C. Baynton

American Cultural History
History of Disability

American Sign Language

Office: 310 Schaeffer Hall

Office Hours:
T 2:00P-3:00P
W 10:00A-11:00A
and by appointment

Tel: 319-335-2295

Email: douglas-baynton@uiowa.edu

Research

Teaching

Publications

Awards &
Service

Research

Doug Baynton has a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. Doug's primary interest is the history of disability in the United States. His research and teaching explore how the cultural meanings of disabilities have changed over time, with particular interest in how the concept of disability can shed light on our understanding of such topics as nativism, eugenics, racial stereotyping, gender roles, and ideas of progress and decline, civilization and nature.

Doug Baynton's first book, Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language (1996), has become one of the defining books in the field of disability history, widely reviewed in both academic and general interest publications. He is the author of numerous articles on the history of disability and is currently writing a book on the concept of "defective persons" in the making of American immigration policy since the late nineteenth century.

Doug serves on the Editorial Board of Sign Language Studies. He has served as a consultant to public television (PBS) for a documentary, "History Through Deaf Eyes" and to National Public Radio for its broadcast, "Beyond Affliction: The Disability History Project." Doug served as a consultant to the National Museum of American History for the "BodyWorks" exhibit in 1998 and on the planning committee for the Museum's "Exhibiting Disability" conference in 1999.

Doug Baynton received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1993.

Teaching

He teaches various classes on disability history and US nineteenth-century cultural history. He also teaches courses for advanced students in the American Sign Language Program. His courses include: "American Cultural History, 1820-1920," "Disability in American History," and graduate seminars on disability history.

  • 16A:051 Colloquium for History Majors (American)
  • 16A:104 /158:100 History of the American Deaf Community
  • 16:224 Seminar: History of Disability
  • 158:101 Topics in Deaf Studies
  • 158:111 American Sign Language Conversation

Publications

  • Defectives in the Land: Disability and American Immigration Law, 1882-1924 (book in progress)
  • "Beyond Culture: Deaf Studies and the Question of the Body" in Sightings: Explorations in Deaf Studies, edited by Dirksen Bauman and Ben Bahan (University of Minnesota Press, 2006)
  • " 'The Undesirability of Admitting Deaf Mutes': American Immigration Policy and Deaf Immigrants, 1882-1924" in Sign Language Studies (2006)
  • "Defectives in the Land: Disability and American Immigration Policy, 1882-1924" in the Journal of American Ethnic History (Spring 2005)
  • Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign Against Sign Language (University of Chicago Press, 1996)
  • "The Curious Death of Sign Language Studies in the Nineteenth Century" in The Study of Signed Languages (Gallaudet University Press, 2002)
  • "Disability and the Justification of Inequality in American History" in The New Disability History: American Perspectives; edited by Paul Longmore and Lauri Umansky (New York University Press, 2001)

Awards & Service

  • Faculty Scholar Award, University of Iowa (2003-2006)
  • Arts and Humanities Initiative Grant, University of Iowa (2001)
  • College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Summer Fellowship, University of Iowa (2000)
  • Central Investment Fund for Research Enhancement Grant, University of Iowa (2000)
  • Arts and Humanities Initiative Grant, University of Iowa (1999)
  • Old Gold Summer Fellowship, University of Iowa (1999)
  • Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Museum of American History (August 1997 - July 1998)
  • Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, Research Seminar Fellowship, University of Iowa (June 10-26, 1997)
  • Irving T. Zola Emerging Scholar Award, Society for Disability Studies (1996)
© The University of Iowa
2005. All rights reserved.
Department of History, 280 Schaeffer Hall, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 52242. Tel: 319-335-2299. FAX: 319-335-2293.