InfoGuides: Sign Language Literature: Scholarly Articles and Videos

Last Updated: Feb 26, 2024 10:55 AM

Finding Scholarly Articles

The library has many databases that have ASL poetry and literature scholarly articles. However, there are a few core journals that publish the most articles related to this topic. The first three titles are video-based.
Journal of American Sign Languages and Literatures,
Deaf Studies Digital Journal,
Sign Language Studies,
Sign Language & Linguistics,
Deaf Worlds,
Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education
Society for American Sign Language (SASL) Journal

You can search within the journal to retrieve articles or use the databases below. Use the A-Z Journal List to find journal print and online holdings. Check out the following newsletters.

Take a look at ACTION magazine published by Jim Cohn, an alumnus (interpreter) involved in the early days of ASL Poetry. Jim Cohn established the short-lived ACTION magazine in 1984 while living in Rochester, New York. He bought an A.B. Dick mimeo machine and produced the magazine in his basement. Between 1984 and 1986, Cohn published 9 issues of ACTION, drawing upon the work of poets in the upstate New York region such as Sam Abrams, J. Todd Beers, Finvola Drury, Bobby Johnson, Chan McKenzie, and Wendy Low, as well as poets Cohn had met in Boulder, Colorado, as a student at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. ACTION also drew upon the Deaf poetry community of Rochester and was the first poetry magazine in the country to feature work by American Sign Language poets Peter Cook, Debbie A. Rennie, and Patrick Graybill.

Start With These Databases

EBSCO This link opens in a new window
This scholarly collection provides coverage for nearly all academic areas of study.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to over 600 high quality, peer reviewed journals from leading scholarly publishers primarily in the humanities and social sciences. We subscribe to the premium collection.
Proquest Complete This link opens in a new window
All-in-1 database that provides coverage for nearly all academic areas of study including arts, business, humanities, health, social sciences, sciences and current affairs. Basic Search Demo and Advanced Search Demo. The advanced video is from 2015 but the concepts still apply.
Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
Identifies Ph.D. dissertations from U.S. & Canadian universities since 1861. Abstracts from 1980. Master's theses from 1988. Many with full-text.

Other Relevant Databases

Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
This database has hundreds of titles on art, architecture, design, history, philosophy, music, literature, theater and cultural studies. It has been designed to complement the following bibliographic databases: ABM, Avery, BHA, BHI, DAAI, Index Islamicus, MLA, Philosopher's Index and RILM.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Features full-text articles (backfiles) of more than 2,800 academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Access includes content from the primary sources collections, multidisciplinary collections, and discipline specific collections. JSTOR also features multimedia content and includes Artstor, a cross-disciplinary collection of over 2 million images for use in research and teaching.
SAGE Journals Online This link opens in a new window
Search SAGE journal articles. SAGE Help
Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
Wiley Online Library hosts the world's broadest and deepest multidisciplinary collection of online resources covering life, health and physical sciences, social science, and the humanities. Our subscription provides access to over 1500 journals. Electronic books are not part of our subscription.