Ulrike Zeshan is a German-born linguist and academic specializing in the

linguistics 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. Lingu ...

signed languages Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

. She is Professor of Sign Language Linguistics at the

University of Central Lancashire , mottoeng = "From the Earth to the Sun" , established = as Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledgere-established 1992 (University status granted) , type = Public , chancellor ...

, UK.

Biography

Zeshan obtained an MA at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

in 1996 and her PhD in linguistics from the same institution in 2000. Between 1999 and 2006 she held two postdoctoral positions: first at the

Research Centre for Linguistic Typology La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria ...

in Canberra, Australia, and then (from 2003) 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 ...

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. In 2006 she took up her current position as Professor at the University of Central Lancashire and Director (later Co-Director) of the International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS) based at the same university. She has been an ordinary member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

since 2014. In 2015, Zeshan was appointed an honorary

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) for "services to higher education and the international deaf community" as part of the

2015 Special Honours As part of the British honours system, the Special Honours are issued at the King's pleasure at any given time. The Special Honours confer the award of the Order of the Garter, Order of the Thistle, Order of Merit, Royal Victorian Order and the O ...

. In 2016 she was awarded an honorary professorship at the Amity University Gurgaon in India.

Research

Zeshan is a leading researcher in the field of

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

typology Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ...

, and has worked on such phenomena as kinship terms,

negation In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and fals ...

, possession, quantification, and

questions A question is an utterance which serves as a request for information. Questions are sometimes distinguished from interrogatives, which are the grammatical forms typically used to express them. Rhetorical questions, for instance, are interrogative ...

. She has worked with

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

on the documentation of sign languages worldwide, including endangered sign languages. She has worked on sign languages of Ghana, India, Turkey, and Uganda. Between 2011 and 2016 she held a

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientif ...

grant to investigate

multilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingualism, monolingual speakers in the World population, world's pop ...

and multilingual behaviours of sign language users.

Politics

Zeshan is also politically active, having stood as a

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundati ...

MEP MEP may refer to: Organisations and politics * Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, a political party in Sri Lanka * Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (1956), a former political alliance in Sri Lanka * Maison européenne de la photographie, a photography centre ...

candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * ...

in the

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

constituency in 2014, as well as in local council elections.

Selected publications

* Zeshan, Ulrike. 2000. ''Sign Language in Indo-Pakistan: A description of a signed language''. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. * Zeshan, Ulrike. 2003. Indo-Pakistani Sign Language Grammar: A Typological Outline. ''Sign Language Studies'' 3 (2), 157–212. * Zeshan, Ulrike. 2003. Aspects of Türk Isaret Dili (

Turkish Sign Language Turkish Sign Language ( tr, Türk İşaret Dili, TİD) is the language used by the deaf community in Turkey. As with other sign languages, TİD has a unique grammar that is different from the oral languages used in the region. TİD uses a two-ha ...

). ''Sign Language & Linguistics'' 6 (1), 43–75. * Zeshan, Ulrike. 2004. Interrogative Constructions in Signed Languages: Crosslinguistic Perspectives. ''

Language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

'' 80 (1), 7–39. * Zeshan, Ulrike. 2004. Hand, head and face: negative constructions in sign languages. ''Linguistic Typology'' 8, 1–58. * Zeshan, Ulrike (ed.). 2006. ''Interrogative and Negative Constructions in Sign Language''. Ishara Press. * Zeshan, Ulrike, and Connie De Vos (eds.). 2012. ''Sign languages in village communities: Anthropological and linguistic insights''. Berlin: De Gruyter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zeshan, Ulrike Women linguists Linguists from Germany Living people Academics of the University of Central Lancashire University_of_Cologne_alumni Year of birth missing (living people)