Faculty Members

Ginger Pizer received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 2008. She teaches a variety of linguistics courses, including Introduction to Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, and the History of the English Language. Her research combines approaches from sociolinguistics, first language acquisition, and the linguistics of signed languages to address issues of language use in family contexts, especially among families whose linguistic repertoires include American Sign Language. She has conducted research on the use of “baby signs” between hearing parents and hearing infants and has also investigated the adaptations that deaf parents make to their ASL when they address their deaf infants. She is currently continuing her dissertation research on language choices in families with deaf parents and hearing children.