Author Susan Schaller visits IDGS

4 September 2023

Photo: IDGS

On 30 August 2023 we had a visit from Susan Schaller from Boston, who happened to be in Hamburg for a private visit. She earned a Master’s degree in Public Health and is a fluent ASL signer. Her work with deaf adults suffering from language deprivation inspired her first book, "A Man Without Words“ (1991). Until now she keeps promoting the language rights of Deaf people. We showed Susan our library, which of course also has her novel in its inventory. There we were able to talk about our degree programs, projects, the milestones of sign language research, and the empowerment of the Deaf community and the Deaf Culture and sign language. Afterwards, Susan got a glimpse into our experimental sign language lab, where she got to learn a few things about our current EEG studies on cognitive processing of sign languages. The DGS corpus project team also provided her with valuable insights into sign language lexicography, and Susan was able to see the digital dictionary DW-DGS in its pre-release version. The visit was rounded off with a convivial lunch. Great to have you here, Susan!