Mandana Seyfeddinipur is a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, author, and educator. She is also the Head of the Endangered Languages Archive.

Early life and education

Seyfeddinipur grew up in Germany. She studied linguistics and

Persian studies Persian studies (Persian: مطالعات فارسی) is the study of the Persian language and its literature specifically. It is differentiated from Iranian studies which is a broader, more interdisciplinary subject that focuses more on the histo ...

at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

and graduated with a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

. She received her

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

at the

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (German: ''Max-Planck-Institut für Psycholinguistik''; Dutch: ''Max Planck Instituut voor Psycholinguïstiek'') is a research institute situated on the campus of Radboud University Nijmegen located ...

Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, nl, Radboud Universiteit , formerly ''Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen'') is a public research university located in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The university bears the name of Saint Radboud, a 9th century D ...

from 2000 to 2005. Her dissertation was entitled ''Disfluency: Interrupting speech and gesture''. She then worked as a Marie Curie postdoctoral work

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

from 2006 to 2009.

Career

After another short stay at the Max Planck Institute, Seyfeddinipur moved to the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

(SOAS) at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

in 2010, where she became head of the ''Endangered Languages Documentation Programme'', which has been awarding grants for the documentation of endangered languages worldwide since 2002, financed by the private Arcadia Foundation. Since 2014 she has headed the

Endangered Languages Archive The Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) is a digital archive for materials on endangered languages, based at Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW). The Archive preserves digital collections, including audio and video recordi ...

(ELAR), which deals with the digital preservation of endangered languages and makes digital collections of endangered languages digitally accessible worldwide. Seyfeddinipur moved with the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy in 2021. As an expert in the fields of language use, multimedia and digital technology for documentation, she trains scientists to develop multimedia collections of endangered languages. Seyfeddinipur teaches courses in Visual Mode of Language, the use of videos in field research on endangered languages, language psychology and language use. Her research interests focus on (audiovisual) language documentation, cultural and linguistic diversity in language use, psycholinguistics and language production. She is also involved in work on the preservation of poetry and other literature in endangered languages.

Publications

Monographs

* ''Disfluency: Interrupting speech and gesture.'' Nijmegen: MPI-Series in Psycholinguistics; 2006. (PhD)

Articles

* with Dale Barr: ''The role of fillers in listener attributions for speaker disfluency'', in: ''Language and Cognitive Processes'', (25), pp 441–455; 2010. * with Sotaro Kita and Peter Indefrey: ''How speakers interrupt themselves in managing problems in speaking: Evidence from self-repairs,'' in: ''Cognition'', (108) 3, pp 837–842; 2008. * with Sotaro Kita: ''Gestures and speech disfluencies'', in: ''Proceedings of the 27th Conference of the Berkeley Linguistic Society, (BLS) Berkeley, February 2001''.; 2003. * with Sotaro Kita: ''Gesture as an indicator of early error detection in self-monitoring of speech'', in: ''Proceedings of the ISCA (International Speech Communication Association) Tutorial and Research Workshop. DiSS’01:Disfluency in spontaneous speech’ University of Edinburgh, Scotland;'' 2001.

Other

* ''From gesture in conversation to visible action as utterance.'' Amsterdam: Benjamins; 2014. With Marianne Gullberg. * ''Reasons for Documenting Gestures and Suggestions for How to Go About It''. In: Nicholas Thieberger (Hrsg.), ''The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Fieldwork''. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2011. * ''Meta-discursive gestures from Iran: Some uses of the ‘Pistolhand’'', in: Cornelia Mueller und Roland Posner (Hrsg.). ''The Semantics and Pragmatics of Everyday Gestures: Proceedings of the Berlin Conference April 1998''. Berlin: Weidler Verlag; 2004. * with Sotaro Kita: ''Gestures and repairs in speech'', in: Christian Cavé, Isabelle Guaïtella und Serge Santi (Hrsg.): ''Oralité et Gestualité. Interactions et comportements multimodaux dans la communication. Actes du colloque ORAGE 2001''. Paris: l'Harmattan, pp 266–279; 2001.

References

External links

SOAS staff page

TEDxLSHTM talk of Mandana Seyfeddinipur: ''Endangered languages: why it matters''
(Video, YouTube)
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seyfeddinipur, Mandana 1967 births Living people Free University of Berlin alumni Linguists from Iran Iranian emigrants to Germany