Garage’s Regional Variability Russian Sign Language Linguistics Laboratory

Date

Place

Garage Education Center

DESCRIPTION

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art will host the first public linguistic laboratory. It will be devoted to issues dealing with the variability of signs and dialects in Russian Sign Language.

Earlier this year, Garage’s Inclusive Programs department initiated an all-Russian data collection in Russian Sign Language (RSL), aimed at studying the deaf community’s regional and local signs. The obtained data was initially processed by a working group of linguists and experts on RSL.

The three-day laboratory will allow participants to discuss RSL’s individual signs as well as general patterns and might become a starting platform for researchers looking for answers to questions concerning the existence of dialects.

HOSTS OF THE LABORATORY

Anna Komarova is a linguist, sign language interpreter, researcher, associate professor at the Department of English Speech Stylistics at Moscow State Linguistic University, Director of the G.L. Zaytseva deaf education and Sign Language Center.


Vadim Kimmelman, PhD in Linguistics, is a lecturer in General and Computational Linguistics at the University of Bergen, Norway, scholar in the field of sign language linguistics.


Valeria Vinogradova graduated in Linguistics from Moscow State Linguistic University and received a master’s degree in Psychology from the University of East Anglia. She is a scholar in the field of cognitive neuroscience and linguistics at the Laboratory of Deaf and Neuroplasticity Studies, and a student in the Faculty of Social Sciences Graduate School at the University of East Anglia.


Luda Luchkova is Garage Inclusive Programs manager. She graduated in Political Science from RANEPA and received a master’s degree for her thesis “Russian as a Foreign Language in the Interaction of Languages ​​and Cultures” at the School of Linguistics of HSE University.


Oksana Alekseeva is a Linguistics student at Moscow State Linguistic University.

how to take part

Admission with advance registration only.
Practicums require separate registration.
Please, take laptops to the practicums if possible. They will be useful for group work.
The event is accessible to deaf and hard of hearing visitors.

SCHEDULE

Friday, September 25

18:00–19:00  Garage Education Center

Day 1


REGISTRATION


19:00–19:30

Introduction to the laboratory’s program


19:30–20:30

Lecture: “Variability in Russian Sign Language: Garage Case”

A version with simultaneous interpretation to Russian Sign Language will be available on the Garage Youtube channel.

Saturday, September 26

11:00–15:30 Garage Education Center 

Day 2 


REGISTRATION 


11:00–12:00

Section: Linguistic Analysis of Variability

Host: Vadim Kimmelman

A version with simultaneous interpretation to Russian Sign Language will be available on the Garage Youtube channel.


12:00–12:20

Coffee break


12:20–13:10

A report by Anna Komarova: What we Know about Regional Variability in RSL


13:10–13:30

Coffee break


13:30–15:30

Practicum on Linguistic Analysis of Variability

Participants of the laboratory will get introduced to the basics of linguistic analysis of variability and try to draw boundaries between phonological or lexical variants of signs.

Host: Vadim Kimmelman

Please, take laptops to the practicum if possible. They will be useful for group work.

REGISTRATION

Sunday, September 26

11:00–15:30  Garage Education Center 

Day 3 

 

REGISTRATION


11:00–12:00

Section: Variability-Affecting Factors in a Sign Language: Age, Region, Family

Host: Valeria Vinogradova

A version with simultaneous interpretation to Russian Sign Language will be available on the Garage Youtube channel.


12:00–12:20

Coffee break


12:20–13:00

A report by Oksana Alekseeva: Preliminary Data on the Sociolinguistic Specificity of Dialectal and Variable Signs in RSL


13:00–13:20

Coffee break


13:30–15:30

Practicum


Participants of the laboratory will become familiar with the specifics of the regional variability of signs and try to analyze the degree to which metadata, such as the respondent’s age or geographic location, impact linguistic data.

Hosts: Valeria Vinogradova and Anna Komarova

Please, take laptops to the practicum if possible. They will be useful for group work.

REGISTRATION


15:30–17:00

Round table summing up the laboratory’s results

A version with simultaneous interpretation to Russian Sign Language will be available on the Garage Youtube channel.