First Deaf student to earn doctorate from University of Hawaii

Emily Jo Noschese is the first deaf student to earn a PhD from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her degree is in linguistics.

image from hawaii.edu

Noschese is fourth generation deaf and the first in her family to receive a full university education. She graduated from the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and attended Gallaudet University, earning a BA in American Sign Language and an MA in linguistics. While working on her doctorate, Noschese taught ASL at Kapiʻolani Community College and has worked on a Hawaiʻi Sign Language project. Her dissertation focuses on language ideology in younger ASL users. You can read it here. Below is a video of her teaching ASL.