Originally from Tacoma, Washington by way of Craig, Alaska, Shawn completed an AA in Sociology at Tacoma Community College in anticipation of becoming an environmental lawyer. Though his passion for sustainability persisted, his interest in law waned as he moved across the country to continue his studies. Shawn earned his AB (fancy Latin term for BA) in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. While at Dartmouth, he wrote an Honors Thesis in Cognitive Neuroscience under the aegis of Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto, examining the neural mechanisms underlying language switching in bilingual hearing children of Deaf adults (CODAs) using fMRI and fNIRS. A CODA himself (mother father Deaf), Shawn likes to joke that he studied himself, writ large, with grant money.
At Gallaudet, Shawn is a student in the clinical psychology PhD program, and his research interests involve the intersections of ethnic identity and Deaf cultural identity (e.g., Black Deaf, Latino/Hispanic Deaf, and Asian Deaf individuals). In 2007, Shawn began working for VL2 as a graduate assistant for Dr. Paul Dudis. Presently, Shawn assists Dr. Dudis and colleagues in the development of the Depiction Comprehension Test and synthesizes research related to the preservation, revitalization, and maintenance of native language corpora.
When he is not engrossed in research (his own or others'), Shawn enjoys perfecting his recipe for vegan red velvet cupcakes, running at 5:00 AM, watching snobby independent film, and editing obsessively the Wikipedia article for Marc Jacobs.
The is material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number SBE-0541953. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Originally from Tacoma, Washington by way of Craig, Alaska, Shawn completed an AA in Sociology at Tacoma Community College in anticipation of becoming an environmental lawyer. Though his passion for sustainability persisted, his interest in law waned as he moved across the country to continue his studies. Shawn earned his AB (fancy Latin term for BA) in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. While at Dartmouth, he wrote an Honors Thesis in Cognitive Neuroscience under the aegis of Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto, examining the neural mechanisms underlying language switching in bilingual hearing children of Deaf adults (CODAs) using fMRI and fNIRS. A CODA himself (mother father Deaf), Shawn likes to joke that he studied himself, writ large, with grant money.