Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education Advance Access originally published online on October 19, 2005
The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 2006 11(1):1-2; doi:10.1093/deafed/enj011
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Obituary: Mary Brennan
June 14, 1944–June 23, 2005
Dr. Mary Brennan, the internationally renowned sign linguist, has died from cancer at the age of 61. Her work contributed to the definition of language being extended to incorporate the sign languages of Deaf people. Her work on British Sign Language (BSL) was central to the British Deaf community's successful campaign in obtaining government recognition for BSL in 2003.
Mary was born and raised in Gateshead and attended the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She taught first at Cologne University before moving to Moray House College of Education in Edinburgh. Her responsibilities at Moray House included teaching on a course for teachers of deaf children. It was through this that she became interested in the education of deaf children and signed language.
In 1975, in a paper published in the American Annals of the Deaf (120, 5), Mary challenged the assumptions that underpinned the exclusive use of spoken language in deaf education and the explanations put forward to explain deaf children's "delayed" linguistic development. She argued that there was no biological impediment to such children acquiring a sign language and thereby developing language "normally" and at the same rate as hearing children. Mary was the first person to propose (in the same paper) that the name British Sign Language (BSL) be used for the sign language of the British Deaf community.
At Moray House she established the Edinburgh BSL Project to carry out research on the grammar of BSL. The findings were published in 1980 in Words in Hand: A Structural Analysis of the Signs of British Sign Language.
In 1987, she moved to Durham University to take up a Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People's Research Fellowship. The following year she became co-director of the University's Deaf Studies Research Unit. She established, with Deaf and hearing colleagues, the first taught MA courses in Britain in Sign Linguistics, Teaching of Sign Languages, BSL/English Interpreting and Deaf Studies. The courses were taught in BSL and English and were open to Deaf and hearing students.
Her theoretical research focused on word formation and the concept of visual metaphor in the creation of signs. This was the subject of her doctoral dissertation for which she was awarded a PhD by Stockholm University in 1990.
She carried out applied research in the fields of sign lexicography and BSL/English interpreting. She wrote the introduction to the first BSL dictionary (Dictionary of British Sign Language/English, Faber & Faber, 1992) and was a member of the editorial team responsible for producing the dictionary. The dictionary was the British Association of Applied Linguists' International Book of the Year in 1993. She went on to work with colleagues in Durham and Holland to develop computerized approaches to sign lexicography. This resulted in the creation of the SignBase sign language database and a prototype BSL dictionary in which, for the first time, the meanings of signs were presented in a sign language.
Her interest in BSL/English interpreting led to her developing and co-directing a project entitled Equality Before the Law: Deaf People's Access to Justice. The project explored British Deaf people's experience of the legal system and issues that arise when interpreting between languages that use different modalities.
In 1998, Mary returned to Scotland to direct Edinburgh University's postgraduate course for teachers of deaf children. In 2002, she was appointed Reader in Deaf Studies in the Education Faculty. At Edinburgh she developed, with colleagues, a bilingual multimedia CD-ROM for deaf children entitled The Crowded Cottage, which allows pupils to work in and between BSL and English and includes a bilingual dictionary.
In 2000, Mary established the Achievements of Deaf Pupils in Scotland project, which is at the present time the most comprehensive national survey of deaf children's educational progress and attainments.
Her research and teaching were characterized by the pursuit of excellence. She shared Deaf people's view that their portrayal in academic disciplines as "impaired" individuals had created a major barrier to Deaf people realizing their potential and contributing to mainstream society. For Mary the new disciplines of Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies represented a necessary paradigm shift in the study of deafness, enabling Deaf people's own creative responses to the experience of being deaf, and in particular their creation and use of visual languages, to be recognized and become the subject of academic study.
All of Mary's projects involved Deaf people: it was inconceivable to her that such work could be undertaken without Deaf people. She believed Deaf people had particular contributions to make that only they could make, but she also believed that hearing people could contribute to advancing our knowledge of sign languages and enabling Deaf people to realize their potential.
Mary contributed to the work of national and international organizations. She was a president of the International Sign Linguistics Association. At the national level, her most recent contribution was to chair the working party that produced the policy document Creating Linguistic Access for Deaf and Deafblind People: A Strategy for Scotland. This document addresses issues that were central to her work throughout her career: her concern with Deaf people's lack of linguistic access; the disadvantage Deaf people experience as a consequence; and how this lack of access can be rectified to the benefit, not only of Deaf people, but also of mainstream society.
Mary received a number of awards during her career. The most recent was in 2004 when she was awarded the British Deaf Association's Medal of Honour.
Mary was a most unassuming person who never sought the limelight. She made an outstanding contribution to the study of sign languages, but she will equally be remembered for her personal qualities: her integrity, compassion, generosity, commitment to justice, and gentle sense of humor.
She is survived by her brother Michael and his family; the family of her brother Peter, who predeceased her; and Margaret, prima inter pares among those across the world who will remain forever grateful for her life.
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This obituary draws upon an obituary by David Brien published in the Scotsman newspaper on August 5, 2005.
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