Dorothee Nyga

Since October 2021, I am a research assistant in the SignTeam Göttingen and a PhD student of the Research Training Group 2070 "Understanding Social Relationships". In my doctoral thesis, which I write in the fields of sociolinguistics and Deaf Studies, I deal with the situation and needs of deaf people at universities and other academic institutions. In my empirical studies, I follow a participatory approach. Since 2020, I have also been working as a freelance communication assistant with a focus on German Sign Language (DGS). In summer of 2021, I finished my master's degree in linguistics (with a focus on sign languages linguistics) and intercultural German studies with a thesis on "Multimodal e-learning. Design and evaluation of ILIAS-supported e-learning modules for DGS courses". During my studies at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, I have been involved in Intercultural communication (certificate as intercultural trainer) and German as a second and foreign language (including an ERASMUS+ internship 2016-17 at Aberystwyth University, Wales). The focus of my studies was, however, on sign languages and sign language communities (including an exhibition as part of a project seminar on the life stories of deaf senior citizens). I was a student assistant in the SignTeam since 2018. Between my Bachelor's and Master's degrees from September 2017 to January 2018, I completed an external training as a communication assistant with competence in DGS at gebaerdenservice.de in Berlin. From 2013 to 2017, I studied German language and literature and musicology in a 2-subject bachelor at the Georg-August-University of Göttingen.

I first came to sign language during my exchange year in the US: There was a poster presentation about American Sign Language (ASL) at high school and in the same year there was a new American television series that used English and ASL equally as well as conveying the themes of culture and community. As I began my studies, I then took courses on DGS and laid the focus of my studies on sign language linguistics. In summer 2016, I was part of the bilingual (German and DGS) play "Mal wieder Grimm. Märchenhaftes in deutscher Laut- und Gebärdensprache" at the student theater ThOP.