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Deaf professor proves skeptics wrong - Front - TheChronicleHerald.ca
A TEACHER ONCE told Linda Campbell she’d never go to university.
The Halifax resident is now a university professor.
And she doesn’t have to tell her students what they can or can’t accomplish.
"They see it" every time she steps to the head of the class.
"That was a really powerful assumption to make for kids," the scientist recalls through an interpreter, her fingers signing rapidly with the recollection.
"I’m the type of person, if someone says I can’t do it, I say ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ "
What she’s doing, only a few other deaf Canadians ever have.
The Alberta native knows of just three other deaf professors now teaching in Canadian university classrooms.
Campbell started at Queens University in 2004, using a sign language interpreter to help explain the intricacies of mercury on fish development, or climate change on the world’s water, or other complexities of environmental studies and biology.
A PhD in aquatic ecology, Campbell will do the same in Halifax this fall, using an interpreter to teach students at Saint Mary’s University. She’s also setting up a mercury research lab and hopes to take her students into the field to see if contaminants are hurting fish in local lakes.
She’s always been that kind of outdoorsy, "getting my hands dirty" kind of person, whether swimming or horseback riding or earning her master’s degree in science studying lakes in the Banff area — all with the encouragement of parents who taught her that lack of hearing was no barrier to success.
Even in the face of naysayers like that teacher. And even in the company of people who mean well but lack understanding of the deaf world.
"People think I can’t do it, that’s a big one," says the petite professor, sitting in her half-decorated office at SMU, where she’s "been made to feel welcome" since arriving in July.
"People assume I can’t do something and so I’m not included, so they don’t even ask me. . . . Often people assume that I can’t participate in a phone conference so they don’t invite me. They don’t ask me for the other alternatives; they just go ahead with the meeting . . . and often it’s important, people from all over the world getting together and discussing things."
But Campbell can easily participate with an interpreter or via a script service. Online conferencing is another option, one of many that have opened up to the hearing impaired with advances in technology.
As she shares her expertise on the environment and biology, bit by bit Campbell also finds herself opening minds to "the deaf world view."
"Yes, it’s a big part of my job. Often, people, they want to do what’s right, but they don’t know what’s right so either they assume or they don’t know how to ask."
Her previous experience with students, though, has been "very positive," with questions asked and answered with just a little modification in expectations.
"The first day it was a surprise, of course, for them but then after that they just settled in and they got used to it," Campbell says of her experience at Queens.
"They didn’t know I was deaf and they hadn’t worked with an interpreter so it was a first experience for them . . . but it was really good. It was very nice to see how they got used to it so quickly and how they focused on the course."
As she focuses on her new teaching position and new local research, Campbell sees doors opening for other deaf Canadians — doors she’s helping to open wider.
She participated in a workshop last year in Toronto for deaf high school and university students. Few of them, Campbell says, had any doubts about what they could accomplish.
An increasing number of deaf actors and others in popular culture also help inspire a new generation, she says.
"So it’s happening more and more. There’s role models out there, and that part makes it easier for all of us."
But does she see herself as a role model too?
Campbell’s fingers pause for a moment.
"I guess so," she allows through the interpreter.
"I did not become a professor to break down the barriers. But it just happened on the way."
A TEACHER ONCE told Linda Campbell she’d never go to university.
The Halifax resident is now a university professor.
And she doesn’t have to tell her students what they can or can’t accomplish.
"They see it" every time she steps to the head of the class.
"That was a really powerful assumption to make for kids," the scientist recalls through an interpreter, her fingers signing rapidly with the recollection.
"I’m the type of person, if someone says I can’t do it, I say ‘OK, I’ll do it.’ "
What she’s doing, only a few other deaf Canadians ever have.
The Alberta native knows of just three other deaf professors now teaching in Canadian university classrooms.
Campbell started at Queens University in 2004, using a sign language interpreter to help explain the intricacies of mercury on fish development, or climate change on the world’s water, or other complexities of environmental studies and biology.
A PhD in aquatic ecology, Campbell will do the same in Halifax this fall, using an interpreter to teach students at Saint Mary’s University. She’s also setting up a mercury research lab and hopes to take her students into the field to see if contaminants are hurting fish in local lakes.
She’s always been that kind of outdoorsy, "getting my hands dirty" kind of person, whether swimming or horseback riding or earning her master’s degree in science studying lakes in the Banff area — all with the encouragement of parents who taught her that lack of hearing was no barrier to success.
Even in the face of naysayers like that teacher. And even in the company of people who mean well but lack understanding of the deaf world.
"People think I can’t do it, that’s a big one," says the petite professor, sitting in her half-decorated office at SMU, where she’s "been made to feel welcome" since arriving in July.
"People assume I can’t do something and so I’m not included, so they don’t even ask me. . . . Often people assume that I can’t participate in a phone conference so they don’t invite me. They don’t ask me for the other alternatives; they just go ahead with the meeting . . . and often it’s important, people from all over the world getting together and discussing things."
But Campbell can easily participate with an interpreter or via a script service. Online conferencing is another option, one of many that have opened up to the hearing impaired with advances in technology.
As she shares her expertise on the environment and biology, bit by bit Campbell also finds herself opening minds to "the deaf world view."
"Yes, it’s a big part of my job. Often, people, they want to do what’s right, but they don’t know what’s right so either they assume or they don’t know how to ask."
Her previous experience with students, though, has been "very positive," with questions asked and answered with just a little modification in expectations.
"The first day it was a surprise, of course, for them but then after that they just settled in and they got used to it," Campbell says of her experience at Queens.
"They didn’t know I was deaf and they hadn’t worked with an interpreter so it was a first experience for them . . . but it was really good. It was very nice to see how they got used to it so quickly and how they focused on the course."
As she focuses on her new teaching position and new local research, Campbell sees doors opening for other deaf Canadians — doors she’s helping to open wider.
She participated in a workshop last year in Toronto for deaf high school and university students. Few of them, Campbell says, had any doubts about what they could accomplish.
An increasing number of deaf actors and others in popular culture also help inspire a new generation, she says.
"So it’s happening more and more. There’s role models out there, and that part makes it easier for all of us."
But does she see herself as a role model too?
Campbell’s fingers pause for a moment.
"I guess so," she allows through the interpreter.
"I did not become a professor to break down the barriers. But it just happened on the way."
