Meet the SignMorph Team

ADAM SCHEMBRI

Principal Investigator

I am a hearing linguist, originally from Australia. My research interests focus on the linguistics of sign languages, particularly British Sign Language and Auslan (the majority sign language of the Australian deaf community). I have published work on a range of topics, including the lexicon, morphosyntax, typology, and sociolinguistics of sign languages.

NEIL FOX

Research Fellow

I am a deaf researcher from the UK, I am a native signer of British Sign Language (BSL). My research interest previously focused on automatic recognition and translation of BSL. I also have a research background in psycholinguistics. I have worked with University College London since 2008, where I obtained a MRes in Speech, Language and Cognition in 2010.

I am very excited to be part of the SignMorph team.

MARTA MORGADO

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

I am a deaf researcher. My bachelor's and master's degrees are in deaf education and my PhD is about the influence of community size, language age, and social interaction in three West African sign languages. I have been witnessing the emergence of sign language in Guinea-Bissau since 2005. I am excited to continue my work with this community in the SignMorph project. My main research interests are the sociocultural backgrounds of deaf communities and signed literature

ARJUN SHRESTHA

SignMorph PhD Student

I am a deaf researcher from Nepal. I graduated with an MSc Language Sciences with Specialisation in Sign Language and Deaf Studies from University College London (UCL) in 2019 with full support of Chevening Scholarship Award. Previously, I received my Bachelor of Arts in Deaf Education and Linguistics from Gallaudet University, USA, 2015, also with full support of World Deaf Scholarship award. Before coming to Birmingham, I was working to support the development of Nepali Sign Language (NSL) and bilingual education of Deaf children in Nepal.

MARAH JARAISY

Project-linked AHRC Midlands4Cities PhD student

I am a hearing researcher who received my BA in Human Services and English Language and Literature from the University of Haifa, and my MA in Applied Linguistics (focusing on sign language linguistics) from the Bar-Ilan University. I am Palestinian, and my work focuses on Kufr Qassem Sign Language (KQSL) - a micro-community sign language that emerged in the Palestinian town of Kufr Qassem in what is now known as Israel. For my PhD, I am looking at how the changing social circumstances and dynamics in Kufr Qassem are affecting morphological aspects in sign language use in the KQSL community.

HEIDI PROCTOR

Research Fellow (part-time)

I am a hearing linguist from the UK, working part-time with the SignMorph team. I hold an MSc in Language Sciences with specialisation in Sign Language Studies and I am currently completing my PhD at University College London. For my PhD, I am investigating the structure of noun phrases produced by deaf signers recorded in the BSL Corpus. I have also conducted an online judgement task, asking for deaf signers’ ratings of noun phrases. In the SignMorph project I am excited to be using similar tools to investigate the morphological features of BSL.

HANNAH LUTZENBERGER

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2021-2023)

I am a hearing linguist who obtained a BA in sign languages from Hamburg University and a research Masters in Linguistics with a specialisation in sign language linguistics from Amsterdam University. For my PhD dissertation, I investigated phonology in Kata Kolok, looking at variation across adult signers and its acquisition by deaf children. My main research interests are language acquisition, language variation, and language documentation.

REHANA OMARDEEN

Visiting Scholar (2021-2022)

I am a hearing linguist from Trinidad and Tobago. My PhD work focused on the documentation and description of Providence Island Sign Language, used in Providence/Providencia, Colombia. I am broadly interested in documenting and researching Caribbean signed and spoken languages from a multimodal perspective, and particularly interested in the way languages are used in conversation. Previously, I’ve studied at Swarthmore College in the US (BA), and at Radboud University in the Netherlands (MA). From September 2021 to March 2022, I was a visiting researcher on the SignMorph project.

SignMorph Collaborators

Felicia Bisnath

Katie Mudd

Rose Stamp

SignMorph Advisory Board

KELLY MERRIMAN

Research Projects Portfolio Administrator (SignMorph)