Team members
Here, you can find an introduction of the members of my lab.
If you want to learn our sign names, just hover over the images with your mouse.
In April 2020, I started my current position as assistant professor of Sign Languages at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Previously, I was a visiting professor at the University of Hamburg (2018-2019), and a postdoctoral associate in Linguistics and Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego (2016-2018). I received my Dr. rer. nat. (PhD equivalent) in Psychology (Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology) from the University of Hamburg in 2016. I have a Magister Artium (M.A.) in Sign Languages (first major) and Economics (second major). Before entering academia, I finished a 2.5 years apprenticeship in bookselling in a bookstore in northern Germany.
My academic profile is shaped by my training in both sign language linguistics and cognitive neuroscience. In my research, I am following an interdisciplinary approach to address questions concerning language processing, bilingualism, the critical period of language acquisition, and neuroplasticity.
I am currently working on my PhD project, which focuses on neuroplasticity, deafness, deafblindness and sensory processing. This research can lead us to understand better how neuroplasticity in the human brain is affected by sensory deprivation and the environment.
My PhD project focuses on semantic and pragmatic processing and its correlation to linguistic/sensory experience. I am particularly interested in the implications of (age of first) multimodal language input on linguistic development in general and pragmatic/semantic understanding in specific.
My main interest is the research of sign languages from a psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic perspective. Here, I am particularly interested in bimodal-bilingual language processing in the brain. In addition, I am interested in the effects of early Deafness and the role of language experiences on neuroplasticity.