Rate My Professor Amy June Rowley

Amy June Rowley, PhD, is a Professor and Coordinator of the American Sign Language (ASL) Program in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at California State University, East Bay. She earned her PhD in Urban Education and Second Language Acquisition from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with a dissertation on American Sign Language Advanced Studies Programs: Implementation Procedures and Identifying Empowering Practices. Rowley holds a Master of Science in Deaf Education and American Sign Language from McDaniel College and Master level certification from the American Sign Language Teachers Association (ASLTA), where she served as Director of the Evaluation and Certification Program for several years. Before joining Cal State East Bay, she coordinated the ASL program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for nine years. She teaches courses such as ASL I, ASL II, and Sociolinguistics of Black ASL.

Rowley’s research interests include the systemic and hierarchical structures of ASL programs in postsecondary institutions and relationships between students, interpreters, and the Deaf community. Her publications address audism, oppression, and special education experiences, including “Audism: A Theory and Practice of Audiocentric Privilege” (2013, co-authored with Richard Clark Eckert, Humanity & Society), “Rowley Revisited: A Personal Narrative” (2008, Journal of Law and Education), contributions to Deaf Eyes on Interpreting, and an address in the New York Law School Law Review (2019). Rowley was the deaf plaintiff in the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley, which defined free appropriate public education standards under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. At Cal State East Bay, she chairs the Committee on Instruction and Curriculum, leads in curriculum development and assessment efforts, holds Quality Matters certification for her online courses, and received the Outstanding Contributor to Community Engagement award in 2016.