research projects

since January 09/20 temporary position for principal investigators (DFG, Eigene Stelle) in the project “Processes of stabilization in gestures. A media-specific and cross-modal approach” at the Sign Lab Göttingen, within the DFG Priority Programme 2329 „Visual Communication. Theoretical, Empirical, and Applied Perspectives (ViCom)“

since January 2020 co-coordinator of the project “Multimodal Stancetaking: Expressive Movement and Affective Stance. Political Debates in the German Bundestag and the Polish Sejm” (funded by “Beethoven”; DFG / NCN).

since June 2017 cross-linguistic study of the  cyclic gesture in English, German Persian (Farsi), together with Laura Hirrel (University of New Mexico, USA)

2017-2019 interdisciplinary study on verbo-gestural practices in second language learning, together with Jana Bressem and Uta Großmann (TU Chemnitz, Germany).

2009-2012 post-doc in and co-leader of the interdisciplinary project Körpersprache von Bewegung und Tanz: Bedeutungsemergenz, Versprachlichung und therapeutische Nutzung (“Embodied meaning in dance and movement: emergence, languaging, therapies and education”) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Researchcoordination of the sub-project Emergence of meaning in language and gesture.

2006-2010 researcher in the interdisciplinary project “Towards a grammar of gesture: evolution, brain, and linguistic structures“, funded by the VolkswagenStiftung.

      • responsible for developing a linguistic annotation system for gestures (LASG), together with Jana Bressem
      • responsible for the sub-projects Gestural modes of representation in human primates and Structures of meaning and reference: Referential gestures: how the concrete becomes abstract

organization of scientific activities and events

12.-16. August 2024 DGfS summer school 2024, “How meaning emerges in gestures. A cognitive-semiotic approach”, Göttingen.

2018-2022 Head of the Viadrina Gesture Center.

07/2018 Panel organization “The Diversity of Recurrency: Recurrent gestures across cultures” at the 8th conference of the International Society of Gesture Studies, ISGS 8, together with Jana Bressem and Simon Harrison.

11/2018 Organization of the 4th international workshop  „Mapping multimodal communication” (MaMuD 4), together with Cornelia Müller, Dorothea Horst and Lena Hotze.

07/2012 Panel organization „Gestures and their relation to speech and sign”  at the 5th conference of the International Society of Gesture Studies (ISGS), together with Jana Bressem and Simon Harrison.

since 01/2011 Organization of the Viadrina Gesture Center (European University Viadrina).

07/2010 Panel organization „Towards a grammar of gesture“ at the 4th conference of the International Society of Gesture Studies (ISGS),  together with Jana Bressem , Cornelia Müller, Susanne Tag, and Sedinha Teßendorf.

04/2009 – 11/2010 Head of local committee organizing the 4th conference of the International Society of Gesture Studies (ISGS) in Frankfurt (Oder), „Gesture, evolution, brain and linguistic structures“ (25.-30.07.2010), with Jana Bressem.

10/2007 Organization of the workshop „Methods of Gesture Analysis I and II“, Frankfurt (Oder), together with Jana Bressem  and Cornelia Müller.

04/2007 – 09/2009 Organization of the BGC colloquium (Berlin Gesture Center).


research interests

Multimodality from a linguistic perspective in the fields of Pragmatics, Cognitive and Functional Grammar, (Cognitive) Semantics, Dynamics of Language Use (synchronic and diachronic), cross-cultural comparison, sign language