RELEASE ON RECEIPT




                                                    CONTACT: Katherine Jackson
                          DEAF EDUCATOR TO LECTURE AT U.VA.
	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 2--Jack Gannon, a deaf author and  
educator, will lecture Thursday, Feb. 15, at 7 p.m. at the University of 
Virginia's Wilson Hall.
	Gannon, who wrote "Deaf Heritage" and "The Week the World Heard 
Gallaudet," is special assistant to the President of Gallaudet University. 
Gallaudet, located in Washington, D.C., is the only liberal arts university 
exclusively for the deaf and the hard of hearing.  It is funded by Congress 
and 35 percent of its faculty are deaf or hard of hearing.  
	Gannon's discussion about the deaf community kicks off U.Va.'s second 
annual American Sign Language Deaf Culture Lecture Series.  The lecture will 
be voice-interpreted for the non signing public.  Organized by a deaf U.Va. 
graduate student, Chris Krentz, and a deaf community activist, Lisa J. Berke, 
the lecture is free and open to the public.	
	For more information, contact KrentzJvia e-mail ck9m@Virginia.edu. or 
Berke at (804) 295-8871 TTY, or Claire N. Kaplan at (804) 982-2774 voice. 
Berke and Kaplan can also be reached at e-mail cnk2t@Virginia.edu.  
	The series is sponsored by  the Virginia Foundation for the 
Humanities, U.Va.'s English Department, the Linguistics Program, the Office 
of African-American Affairs and the Women's Center. 
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                                              February 1, 1996