UNF emeriti faculty receives Fulbright Specialist Award to address interpreter shortage in Austria

Dr. Sherry Shaw, a professor emerita of ASL/English interpreting at the University of North Florida, recently served as a Fulbright specialist to help develop the new Austrian Sign Language-German Interpreter Bachelor's Degree Program at Carinthia University of Applied Sciences in Klagenfurt, Austria.

The newAustrian Sign Language-German Interpreter Education Program addresses the critical shortage of interpreters in the region and is scheduled to begin in Fall 2025. Shaw is working alongside university administrators, the local Deaf Association leadership and curriculum developers to finalize the program's designand delivery modes that will be used.

Shaw spent five weeks in Austria preparing for the accreditation site visit and building the community-university infrastructure that will be vital to the program's sustainability. Shaw also helped to organize public forums to gather input from Deaf community stakeholders and involve them in the process from the ground up. This input will be used in program planning and the formation of an advisory board that will contribute to the program's continuous improvement once it is implemented.

Having developed and taught a graduate course on Holocaust studies for interpreters at UNF in 2022 and led two study abroad trips focused on experiential learning at Holocaust memorial sites in Poland, Netherlands and Austria, Shaw is additionally spending her time in upper Austria as a Fulbright specialist sharing her knowledge on Holocaust literacy in interpreter education. Including an excursion to Hartheim Castle with interpreting students, Shaw is leading Train the Trainers seminars for prospective faculty on interpreting for people who are DeafBlind and incorporating Holocaust literacy in their preparation of interpreters who will work with traumatized populations, such as the growing number of displaced Deaf Ukrainian people settling in the area.

Shaw has been an interpreter educator in post-secondary programs since 1989 and has been a nationally certified ASL/English interpreter since 1981. A former vice president of the Commission on Collegiate Interpreter Education, she currently serves as past president of the Mid-South Educational Research Association and is a member of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Conference of Interpreter Trainers, and the Florida DeafBlind Association.