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Diane Brentari is the Mary K. Werkman Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago and a co-director of the Center for Gesture, Sign, and Language. Her research interests focus on the grammars of sign languages and their implications for understanding language emergence, variation, and typology. She investigates the cognitive, cultural, and formal dimensions that motivate variations and similarities between languages, especially within Deaf communities. Brentari's work on sign language structure reveals how communication mode affects language construction, shedding light on the flexibility of human language capacity. Currently, she is exploring new protactile languages emerging in DeafBlind communities in the USA, considering modalities such as proprioception and touch. She has been recognized by the Linguistic Society of America and is a Guggenheim Fellow, as well as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Department of Philosophy