UK's first deaf professor of Deaf Studies appointed

An academic in Edinburgh has become the first deaf professor in the UK in the field of Deaf Studies.

Annelies Kusters, of Heriot-Watt University, has studied deaf communities around the world for almost 20 years.

Her promotion in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies makes her a top academic in the field, according to the university.

"I am standing on the shoulders of the deaf lecturers and scholars who educated me – and I support others to stand on mine," Prof Kusters said.

Prof Kusters was educated by deaf lecturers in Bristol but she is the first academic in her field of study in the UK to reach the title of full professor.

Both Europe and the United States have deaf professors in Deaf Studies and Sign Language Studies.

Deaf Studies has existed since the 1970s and is a field of study that explores the lives of deaf and hearing-impaired people throughout the world.

Prof Kusters was promoted from associate professor to full professor after working at Heriot-Watt since 2017.

She described her research interests as “observing deaf people in their day-to-day lives” and this work has taken her to Ghana, India, Surinam, Brazil, Kenya, Italy, Denmark and France.

"My PhD was in a Ghanaian village with a high rate of hereditary deafness,” Prof Kusters said.

“While other researchers are fascinated by the genetics or just the linguistics of the local sign language, I was interested in learning about their daily lives - how they communicate, socialise, and so on."

Prof Kusters also recently took part in a cabaret show at The Stand comedy club in Edinburgh.

While using British Sign Language (BSL), a translator spoke in verbal English while she presented to the crowd.

Born in Belgium, Prof Kusters got her masters at the University of Leuven before going to Bristol to become a PhD in Deaf Studies.

Now at Heriot-Watt, Prof Kusters said she was "especially passionate about supporting other deaf scholars in their careers".

She runs a group called 'Signs@HWU' that focus on Deaf Studies, sign linguistics and sign language interpreting studies in the university.

Professionally, Prof Kusters said she has a range of responsibilities in the university, including being co-director of engagement in the School of Social Sciences.

"Balancing my professional life with personal responsibilities has been demanding," she said, "I have a family with two children to care for."

She said as with any academic in her position, this can become an issue.

Prof Jemina Napier, chair of intercultural communication, said: “Heriot-Watt University is proud to have the first deaf full professor in the UK.

"After almost 40 years of Deaf Studies research and teaching in universities in the UK, it is long overdue, as deaf scholars should be leading at the forefront of this discipline."

"To be honest, it is overdue," Prof Kusters said on being the first in the UK.

"It's a surreal realisation that I've reached a position that many of my deaf peers, including those who directly mentored me haven't.

"Truly, any one of them could have very well been in this pioneering position."