Steve is a Ph.D. candidate in disability studies and cultural foundations at Syracuse University. He will be joining SELL in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. His dissertation investigates the relationship between socioeconomic status and disability identity development. He has also studied the portrayal of deaf people in film and television and the facilitation of communication for mixed groups of hearing and deaf students in collaborative work. Becoming deaf at the age of 28 was a momentously positive rebirth for him.