Wilcox, Sherman

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Wilcox, Sherman

PERSONAL:

Male. Education: Studied at University of Michigan, 1965-67, and Indiana University, 1967-69; University of New Mexico, B.U.S., 1974, M.A., 1976, Ph.D., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Academic and consultant. Saint Margaret's Center for Children, El Paso, TX, assistant director and teacher, 1977-78; New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, state coordinator of services for the deaf, 1978-82; Sperry Flight Systems, Albuquerque, NM, technical editor, 1982-83; Albuquerque Public Schools, Albuquerque, NM, teacher of the hearing impaired, 1983-85; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, part-time instructor of American Deaf Culture, 1982-87, linguistics teaching assistant, 1985-86, part-time instructor, 1986, linguistics teaching associate, 1987, assistant professor, 1988-95, associate professor of linguistics, 1995—, chair of the department of linguistics, 2002—. Military service: U.S. Air Force, 1969-73; 505th Air Force Band oboist.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) American Deaf Culture: An Anthology, Linstok Press (Silver Spring, MD), 1989.

(Editor) Academic Acceptance of American Sign Language, Linstok Press (Silver Spring, MD), 1992.

The Phonetics of Fingerspelling, J. Benjamins (Philadelphia, PA), 1992.

(With David F. Armstrong and William F. Stokoe) Gesture and the Nature of Language, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Phyllis Perrin Wilcox) Learning to See: Teaching American Sign Language as a Second Language, 2nd edition, Gallaudet University Press (Washington, DC), 1997.

(Editor, with Masako Hiraga and Chris Sinha) Cultural, Psychological, and Typological Issues in Cognitive Linguistics: Selected Papers of the Biannual ICLA Meeting in Albuquerque, July 1995, J. Benjamins (Philadelphia, PA), 1999.

(With David F. Armstrong) The Gestural Origin of Language, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Member of editorial board for a number of journals, including Gesture, Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, and Sign Language Studies. Editor-in-chief of Journal of Interpretation; inaugural editor of Evolution of Communication. Reviewer of manuscripts for Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Academic Press, University of Chicago Press, Edinburgh University Press, and Gallaudet University Press. Reviewer of grant proposals for National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, European Science Foundation, Social Sciences Research Council of Canada, and Israel Science Foundation.

Contributor to periodicals and academic journals, including Gesture, Jezikoslovlje, Sign Language Studies, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Current Psychology of Cognition, Language and Communication, Current Anthropology, Journal of Childhood Commun-icative Disorders, American Annals of the Deaf, Journal of Interpretation, Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, ERIC Digest, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and Cognitive Linguistics.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sherman Wilcox is an academic and consultant. Wilcox studied music at the University of Michigan from 1965 to 1967 before transferring to Indiana University for two more consecutive years of music studies. From 1969 to 1973, Wilcox played as an oboist in the 505th U.S. Air Force Band. He then changed course by moving to the University of New Mexico and earning a bachelor of university studies degree in 1974. Wilcox continued his graduate studies at the University of New Mexico, earning a master of arts degree in special education in 1976. By 1988 he had completed a Ph.D. in educational linguistics after submitting his dissertation, "The Phonetics of Fingerspelling: Kinematic, Temporal, and Dynamic Aspects of Fingerspelling Production."

In 1977 Wilcox served for one year as assistant director and a teacher at Saint Margaret's Center for Children in El Paso, Texas. From 1978 to 1982, he worked as the state coordinator of services for the deaf for the New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. After this he worked for one year as a technical editor with the Albuquerque-based Sperry Flight Systems. Wilcox worked for two years starting in 1983 as a teacher of the hearing impaired in the Albuquerque Public School System. He also worked as a part-time instructor for American Deaf Culture at Albuquerque's University of New Mexico. He held this position until 1987. During this time, he also worked with the university as linguistics teaching assistant and linguistics teaching associate. In 1988 after completing his Ph.D., he began working as an assistant professor of linguistics. In 1995 he was promoted to associate professor of linguistics. In 2002 he was named as chair of the department of linguistics.

Wilcox serves as a member of the editorial board for a number of journals, including Gesture, Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, and Sign Language Studies. He has reviewed grant proposals for a range of institutes, such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, European Science Foundation, the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada, and the Israel Science Foundation. Wilcox's services as a manuscript reviewer have also been sought after by a number of publishing houses, including Harvard University Press, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Academic Press, University of Chicago Press, Edinburgh University Press, and Gallaudet University Press.

Wilcox has served as the editor-in-chief of Journal of Interpretation and was the inaugural editor of Evolution of Communication. He is also active in publishing scholarly articles on topics within his field of research. Wilcox has contributed to Gesture, Jezikoslovlje, Sign Language Studies, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Current Psychology of Cognition, Language and Communication, Current Anthropology, Journal of Childhood Communicative Disorders, American Annals of the Deaf, Journal of Interpretation, Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, ERIC Digest, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, and Cognitive Linguistics.

Wilcox has published a number of books on linguistics and sign language, starting with the first book he edited, American Deaf Culture: An Anthology, in 1989. With David F. Armstrong, Wilcox published The Gestural Origin of Language in 2007. In this account, the authors address the topic of sign language as being integral to developing understanding on the evolution of human language and communication forms.

Michael C. Corballis, reviewing the book in the American Scientist, commented that "this book appears at a time when theories about language and its evolution are in flux, and only time will tell whether the notion of language being embodied will gain general acceptance. There will of course be resistance, given the strong tradition of basing the properties of language on those of speech." In discussing the debate as to whether sign language was important to understanding the development of human language, Corballis claimed that The Gestural Origin of Language offers "powerful correctives to that antediluvian view" that it does not aid understanding of the evolution of language. Corballis concluded that "although The Gestural Origin of Language is not always an easy read—its ideas sometimes become swamped in jargon—it is an important book. The authors, who have added solidity to the gestural theory of how language first evolved, are part of a sea change in the way we view language and indeed ourselves."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Directory of American Scholars, 10th edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

PERIODICALS

American Anthropologist, June 1, 1996, Gordon W. Hewes, review of Gesture and the Nature of Language, p. 437.

American Scientist, November 1, 2007, Michael C. Corballis, review of The Gestural Origin of Language, p. 533.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, March 1, 1994, review of American Deaf Culture: An Anthology, p. 1069; March 1, 1994, review of Learning to See: Teaching American Sign Language as a Second Language, p. 1069; February 1, 2008, J.F. Andrews, review of The Gestural Origin of Language, p. 974.

Language, December 1, 1994, Richard P. Meier, review of The Phonetics of Fingerspelling, p. 808; September 1, 1997, Sharon A. Myers, review of Gesture and the Nature of Language, p. 675.

Reference & Research Book News, November 1, 2007, review of The Gestural Origin of Language.