Melissa Malzkuhn

Melissa Malzkuhn is an American deaf advocate and founder of the Motion Light Lab at Gallaudet University. She was a 2018 Obama Fellow.

Early life and education Malzkuhn was born Deaf, She grew up in a family where everyone could communicate with American Sign Language. Her grandfather Eric Malzkuhn was a renowned storyteller, and encouraged the children in the family to tell stories with signs.

Malzkuhn completed an MFA degree in visual narrative at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2015.

Career Within the Motion Light Lab, Malzkuhn uses motion-capture tools to create "signing avatars" used in interactive digital apps for deaf children. The Motion Light Lab is a hub within the Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) at Gallaudet University, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. The Baobab is part of the VL2 Storybook App series, which is designed, managed, and co-created by Malzkuhn.

Malzkuhn helped to launch the Deaf Studies Digital Journal, and served as managing editor and co-executive editor.

Publications

Herzig, Melissa and Malzkuhn, Melissa (2015). "Bilingual Storybook Apps: An Interactive Reading Experience for Children". Odyssey. pp. 40–44. Malzkuhn, Melissa (2016). "The Role of the NAD in the American Eugenics Movement". NADmag 16(1):28–33.