Danielle Hunt is an instructor and the MAI Program Coordinator in the Department of Interpretation at Gallaudet University and has been teaching in the department since the fall of 2011 becoming full-time faculty the fall of 2013.
She began interpreting professionally in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 2000 and most recently worked as a staff interpreter at Gallaudet Interpreting Service from 2009-2013. She has experience working in a variety of settings including: medical, emergency, business, government, video relay, close-vision/tactile, and educational interpreting. Although she has a solid background in many areas of interpreting, her specialty in the field is performing arts.
As a graduate of the MAI program, Danielle has had the unique experience of being both a student and an instructor in the Department of Interpretation. She is currently in the process of finishing her dissertation in which she is conducting a qualitative study rooted in an interpretivist theoretical perspective making use of hermeneutical phenomenology along with the use of auto-photography in order to look at the lived experiences of professional identity development of ASL-English interpreters. Her other research projects have included gendered communication and interpreting; action research for tracking students’ progress by using Blackboard discussion boards; employing adaptation principles of translation; and expertise in signed language interpreting. She has served as a research assistant for Dr. Elizabeth Winston, Dr. Laurie Swabey, and Lawrence M. Siegel, Esq.
In addition to her research efforts, Danielle served as part of a committee of signed language interpreters to develop a modular curriculum for online instruction on Deaf/Hearing Interpreting teams as part of an initiative funded by a grant managed by the National Consortium of Interpreter Education Centers (NCIEC). She co-authored and coordinated the proposal for the recently approved MAI:IR program passed by the Gallaudet University Faculty Senate in 2013. She is revising the policies and procedures for the student code of conduct within the department and co-authoring an article on the process with Dr. Brenda Nicodemus.