Lang, Harry G. 1947-

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Lang, Harry G. 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born June 2, 1947, in Pittsburgh, PA. Education: Bethany College, B.S., 1969; Rochester Institute of Technology, M.S.E.E., 1974; University of Rochester, Ed.D., 1979.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Honeoye Falls, NY. Office—National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, 52 Lomb Memorial Dr., Rochester, NY 14623-5604. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Rochester Institute of Technology, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester, NY, physics instructor, 1970-84, professor, 1984, educational researcher, 1990, coordinator of the office of faculty development, 1984-90. Visiting professor, University of Rochester, 1981-89; visiting lecturer, University of Leeds, 1988. Trustee, Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, 1988.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Alumni Award for Achievement in Education, Bethany College, 1994; Outstanding Alumni Award, Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, 1994; National Science Foundation grant, 1994, 1995, and 2001; Fund in Postsecondary Education grant, 2000; Trustees Scholarship Award, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2006.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science, Bergin & Garvey (Westport, CT), 1994.

(With Bonnie Meath-Lang) Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1995.

A Phone of Our Own: The Deaf Insurrection against Ma Bell, Gallaudet University Press (Washington, DC), 2000.

(With Marc Marschark and John A. Albertini) Educating Deaf Students: From Research to Practice, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Edmund Booth: Deaf Pioneer, Gallaudet University Press (Washington, DC), 2004.

Author of numerous research and theoretical papers on teaching science to deaf students.

SIDELIGHTS:

Harry G. Lang has taught physics and mathematics for many years to students at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college that is part of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Lang, who is himself deaf, worked for six years in faculty development at the Institute. He has written, lectured, and taught extensively on the subject of teaching methods for instructing students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Lang's first book, Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science, focuses on contributions made to science by researchers who were deaf or hard-of-hearing. Lang not only discusses the work done by these individuals, he also frequently comments on how their hearing impairment or deafness may have affected their research. Those included in the book range from Guillaume Amontons, who was born in 1663 and went on to formulate the theory of absolute temperature, to chemist Sir John Warcup Cornforth, who worked in the twentieth century. Steven K. Wonnell, reviewing the book for the American Scientist, called it "eye-opening, because it becomes clear that many deaf people have worked actively in science and that many have made important scientific contributions."

Lang collaborated with Bonnie Meath-Lang to compile Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary. The book is a valuable resource for those who wish to "increase awareness and to provide motivation" about deaf people who have made significant contributions to the fields of engineering, mathematics, science, and the arts, according to Betty Porter in RQ.

Lang chronicles the life of an early human rights advocate in Edmund Booth: Deaf Pioneer. Born in Massachusetts in 1810, Booth later moved to the Iowa frontier, took part in the California gold rush, ran a newspaper, lived through the Civil War, and became an outspoken campaigner for the rights of women, minorities, and the handicapped. He was blind in one eye as well as deaf. "Lang presents the life of a mortal—an extraordinary mortal—in a well-told, well-researched account," wrote M. Lynn Rose in History: Review of New Books.

In A Phone of Our Own: The Deaf Insurrection against Ma Bell, Lang tells the story of the three deaf men who developed the system by which a telephone can be linked to a keyboard so that deaf people can type messages that are then transmitted by phone. This development revolutionized communications for deaf individuals. Calling A Phone of Our Own detailed and well-researched, Nancy McCray in Booklist commented that the best parts of the book were those that "describe the talents and personalities of the major players" on the research team. Isis contributor Kenneth Lipartito also recommended A Phone of Our Own as "a useful contribution to the history of communications and an important start on the history of technology from the point of view of those excluded by identity, disability, or circumstance from what the rest of the world might call progress."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, January-February, 1996, Steven K. Wonnell, review of Silence of the Spheres: The Deaf Experience in the History of Science, p. 92.

Booklist, October 15, 1995, review of Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences: A Biographical Dictionary, p. 423; April 15, 2000, Nancy McCray, review of A Phone of Our Own: The Deaf Insurrection against Ma Bell, p. 1506.

History: Review of New Books, winter, 2005, M. Lynn Rose, review of Edmund Booth: Deaf Pioneer, p. 62.

Isis, December, 2002, Kenneth Lipartito, review of A Phone of Our Own, p. 740.

RQ, spring, 1996, Betty Porter, review of Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences, p. 407.