Series
Leiden-Birmingham Lectures
Leiden and Birmingham host leading experts in iconicity, language emergence, descriptive linguistics, sign languages and gesture, and historical linguistics. By bringing them together, we join forces and collaborate in academic endeavors geared toward new ideas and grant proposals. In addition, this collaboration enhances the training of junior scholars by developing skills beyond the expertise of their home institutions.
To tackle the lasting challenge of limited accessible resources for deaf learners in sign language studies, a permanent record of this collaboration will be published online in the form of the Leiden-Birmingham Lecture Series. The bilingual (English-International Sign) lectures will be available globally, benefiting deaf and hearing academics.
The primary objective of the series is to present ongoing research in both institutions under three general themes:
Series I: Comparative Cross-Modal Linguistics (took place in Leiden in February 2024)
Series II: Language Emergence and Evolution (planned for spring 2025)
Series III: Language Documentation Across Modalities (planned for February/March 2026)