Contact: Jill Morford 277-7412 Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920

July 22, 2002 UNM LINGUISTICS PROFESSOR RECEIVES FULBRIGHT TO STUDY AMERICAN, GERMAN SIGN LANGUAGE University of New Mexico Associate Professor Jill Morford, Department of Linguistics, has been awarded a grant by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. She will be lecturing and carrying out cross-linguistic research on two signed languages, American Sign Language and German Sign Language. Morford will be affiliated with the Center for Cultural Research "Media and Cultural Communication" at the University of Cologne in Germany from Jan. to Nov. 2003. The goal of the research is to investigate whether the perception of sign components, such as handshapes and body locations, is influenced by a signer's knowledge of a specific signed language. "The Fulbright will give me the opportunity to pursue my research in an international context, and to bring that intellectual exchange back with me to UNM. Personally, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to immerse my children in a different culture and language. I hope it will open their minds to the possibilities that exist beyond their personal experiences," Morford says. Morford completed her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and a post-doc at McGill University in Montreal, Canada before coming to UNM in 1996. Intrigued by the cultural, linguistic and ecological diversity of New Mexico, she hopes to attract graduate students and scholars from abroad to come study and participate in research in the UNM Department of Linguistics. Each year 800 scholars travel to 140 different countries under the auspices of the Fulbright Scholar Program. ###

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