Conference: Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory

This project supports the annual Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory conference which is a premier venue for presenting linguistics research on signed languages. The conference brings together deaf and hearing sign language scholars from around the world to present cutting edge studies in all areas of linguistic structure, from how signs are formed with the hands and body to how the human mind views and processes sign language. The conference provides important peer review and feedback to sign language researchers in a single forum and provides an accessible venue to highlight the contributions of sign language research to linguistics at large. Because sign language research is underrepresented in the programs of other conferences, this conference is vital for developing a modality-inclusive theory of language. Moreover, unlike academic conferences, in linguistics and in other fields, this conference is designed to be fully accessible, with full interpreting between three conference languages as well as providing human-generated captions, and other accessibility infrastructure like designated sensory relief rooms. The conference program has also been curated to platform deaf scholars, and a panel on disability and (sign) language is included in the plenary schedule to encourage attendance from scholars in other fields and to community members outside academia. Community engagement has also been built into the conference by organizing an evening sign language arts performance. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.