Thriving Thursdays: Multilingualism matters

Cover der Einladung mit den Fotos der beiden Sprecherinnen Verena Krausneker und Lydia Fenkart

A SIETAR Austria Expert Talk Series

What would you like to know about sign languages?

Speakers:

VERENA KRAUSNEKER PhD, is a sociolinguist, lecturer and researcher at University of Vienna, Austria, since 2002. Her main research focus is on language policies and sign language rights, especially in Deaf education. From 2001 to 2007 she served as board member of the Austrian Deaf Association. 2009 to 2015 she served the World Federation of the Deaf as an expert. She was lead researcher in the strategic partnership “Developing and Documenting Sign Bilingual Best Practices in Schools. Besides her academic work, Verena co-founded the NGO ZARA, Austrias’ leading anti-racist organisation and is active as a volunteer in civil society.

LYDIA FENKART BA, is a Native Signer, a teacher and a university lecturer at KPH Wien/Krems, Austria, where she teaches Austrian Sign Language and Deaf Studies (Deaf Culture, Deaf History, Deaf Gain, ….). She is also an activist since her teen ages at the Austrian Deaf Association and at the NGO-Organisation PLIG. As a mother and deaf person, she knows the lack of sign language books and other resources, so she decided to establish a small publishing company called Verlag Fenkart e.U. She also worked for years at the project GESTU sign language dictionary.