Earlier today, the MacArthur Fellowship announced that Dr. Carol Padden (COL ’78) won one of its $500,000 “genius grants” for her groundbreaking work in the field of signed language linguistics.

Padden, who is the first deaf MacArthur Fellow, studies the distinct structure and evolutionary patterns of signed languages. Among other accomplishments, Padden’s research revealed that signed communication tends to have its own “vocabulary, syntax, and grammar” that relies not on visual space, but how signers use that space.

Her work on Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, for example, provided insight about the fundamental elements of language.

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