Kristiaan Dekesel is Head of Recruitment for the Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences. He is also Principal Lecturer within the subject disciplines of Deaf Studies and Interpreting: (British Sign Language/English).

Kristiaan joined the University of Wolverhampton as a lecturer in Deaf Studies and Linguistics in 1994. He became a senior lecturer in 1995, was part of the management committee of the Visual Language Centre (VLC) from 2001-2003 and was promoted to Principal lecturer and Head of the Department of Sign Languages in 2003. In 2009 he was appointed Head of the Department of World and Sign Languages, and a year later, alongside this role, became the Manager of Special Projects for the School of Law, Social Sciences and Communication (LSSC). In 2012 he was appointed to the post of Director of Information, Policy and Planning within LSSC and became Interim Head of Department of Media, Film, Deaf Studies and Interpreting in 2013. Since 2013 he has been responsible for student recruitment within the Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences.

Kristiaan has worked consistently with a range of external partners across the United Kingdom and internationally within a third stream funded activity context. He has been involved in externally funded projects with government departments (e.g. DWP/FCO), European partners, regional institutions and local organizations.

Alongside teaching in the areas of Linguistics, War Studies, Deaf Studies and Interpreter education, Kristiaan established a range of school and college liaison activities with the aim to widen opportunities to higher education for young adults within the Black Country and sits on the University of Wolverhampton Children’s University steering committee. He is an ongoing advocate for the introduction of British Sign Language as secondary school subject option within the National Curriculum.

He continues to be research active in the areas of Deaf Studies and Interpreting.

Kristiaan’s current research interests include:

• The health inequalities of Deaf and hard of hearing people
• The employment inequalities of Deaf and hard of hearing people
• pedagogic approaches to translator training

• EFSLI - Member, European Forum Sign Language Interpreters
• EFSLI/T - European Forum Sign Language Interpreter Trainers
• NDCS - National Deaf Children’s Society – (professional membership)

• Licentiate Germanic Philology
• MA Linguistics in Education
• Diploma Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL)
• Geaggregeerde Hoger Secundair Onderwijs (qualified teacher status for higher secondary education-Belgium)
• Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England and Wales
• BA (Hons) English Language/Literature, Business Studies and History

Bown S. & Dekesel K. (2021) The Change of Life Project:  Deaf Women and the Menopause. Summary Infographics. Wolverhampton. University of Wolverhampton. https://signhealth.org.uk/resources/the-change-of-life-project-deaf-women-and-menopause/

Bown, S. Aldersson, R. & Dekesel, K. (2020)  Supporting patients who are deaf who use a signed language in general practice in British Journal of General Practice 2020; 70 (690): 10-11. DOI:https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X707285 

Bown, S. & Dekesel, K. (2019, 18^th September) “Great Expectations” – To what extent does the use of a sign language interpreter, influence the decisions made by interview panels, when interviewing deaf applicants? [Webinar presentation], in Association of Sign Language Interpreters Webinar series. UK

Bown, S. & Dekesel, K. (2019) Is the interpreter getting you your job?: to what extent do sign language interpreters influence interview panel decisions during interpreter mediated employment interviews? In You are (f/h)ired! Proceedings of the 26th efsli Conference Dubrovnik, 14^th-16^th September 2018. Kindle Direct publishing, pp26-39

Bown, S. & Dekesel, K. (2018) ‘Help or hindrance?’ Who is the real candidate during interpreter-mediated employment interviews? In Newsli, the Association of Sign Language Interpreters, issue 106, pp17-23.

Bown, S. & Dekesel, K. (2018) ‘Great expectations’: Do interpreted job interviews affect the employability opportunities of Deaf candidates? Paper presented at efsli - European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters conference, ‘You are (f/h) ired’, Dubrovnik, 14-16th September 2018.

Bown, S. & Dekesel, K. (2017) Access to Health and Social Care Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People in Wolverhampton. Wolverhampton: Healthwatch.

Bown, S., Dekesel, K. and Stone, C. (eds.) (2015) Mindtricks: Our brain is the limit. Cognitive processes in Sign Language Interpreting. Brussels: EFLSI

Bown, S. & Dekesel, K. (2015) 'Shared mind – shared effort': the cognitive processes and strategies applied by trainee sign language interpreters, in Bown, S., Dekesel, K. and Stone, C. (eds.) Mindtricks: Our brain is the limit. Cognitive processes in Sign Language Interpreting. pp12-47.

Bown, S. & Dekesel K., (2014) 'Cooking without recipes' - The cognitive processes and strategies applied by trainee sign language interpreters. Paper presented at EFSLI – European Forum for Sign Language Interpreters, Antwerp, Belgium, 12-14th September 2014

Bown S. & Dekesel, K., (2012) Vom-Blatt-Übersetzen: Probleme und Lösungen aufzeigen in Das Zeichen, Volume 26:92, pp596-601

Bown, S. & Dekesel K., (2012) Phased by translation: identifying the challenges and solutions in sight interpretation. in Cardinaletti, A. (Ed.) Sight translation, sight interpreting meeting at the cross modes: sign language interpreters as translators Marston Gate: Amazon pp.23-33

Dekesel K. (2011) ‘Can we manage the whole lot in sign language?’ - From verbal classification to rules of grammatical behaviour in British Sign Language. 2nd Symposium in Applied Linguistics 30th June-2nd July 2011 Bristol

Bown S. & Dekesel K., (2011)  Phased by translation: identifying the challenges and solutions in sight interpretation:  Presented at EFSLI – European Forum for Sign Language Interpreters, Vietri Sul Mare, Salerno, Italy 16th – 18th September 2011

Bown S. & Dekesel K., (2011)  The Citoyen Interpreter, Third Community Interpreting Research Seminar in Ireland, Centre for Deaf Studies, Trinity College Dublin, 10-11 February 2011

Bown S. & Dekesel K., (2010)  The Reflective Interpreter as Global Citizen:  European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters 10th-12th September 2010, Glasgow

Bown S. & Dekesel K., (2009) Reflection in Practice II:  Developing and embedding students' reflection for professional practice and employability:  the student perspective. University of Wolverhampton, Placement Learning & Employability Conference 25th June 2009

Teaching interests

Interpreting and Deaf Studies - BA (Hons) British Sign Language (Deaf Studies); BA (Hons) British Sign Language (Interpreting).

Kristiaan has a wide ranging teaching portfolio and his scope of teaching experiences include the academic subjects of Deaf Studies, Interpreting, Linguistics and War Studies.