Rouzbeh Ghahreman

I am Deaf from birth. I grew up in an educated family; my father was a well-known poet and researcher in Persian literature and my mother is a retired well-known teacher of the deaf for 30 years. I completed my master's degree in history in my homeland. I enjoyed the opportunity to be a member of the research group of Farsi and Persian Sign Language (PSL) at University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWRS); the research group successfully published the dictionary of Farsi words and signs (volume three) in 1999. I authored several articles include sign language studies for the first Encyclopedia of the Deaf in Iran after research, analyses and evaluation for several years - all three encyclopedia volumes (1420 pages) published in 2005. I have worked extensively as an educator with elementary and secondary Deaf students and their families in Toronto, Ottawa, and Edmonton since 2004. I attended University of Alberta in 2009 and I completed my master's degree in special education with a focus on Deaf education and completed all of requires courses in Special Education - PhD level. From 2009 through to 2015 I gained university teaching experience as the Sessional Instructor for teaching the course of Introduction to Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, a senior level undergraduate course in the Faculty of Education. This course is focused on providing pre-service teachers with an understanding of the educational needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. I was awarded the Graduate Teaching Award from the Graduate Students Association (GSA), University of Alberta in February 2012. Additionally, I have taught as a full-time LINC ASL instructor to teach ASL and English as second language to Deaf newcomers to Canada at NorQuest College in Edmonton for two years. These experiences have provided an excellent opportunity for me to act as a Deaf role model as I teach hearing students about a variety of topics, foremost of which are language and culture.