Lina Hou

Lina Hou is an Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and serves as Director of Graduate Studies. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from The University of Texas at Austin (2016) and completed a UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC San Diego (2016-2018). Her research focuses on signed language documentation, child acquisition of sign languages, and ethnographic approaches to linguistic socialization. She emphasizes linguistic justice and critical methodologies in her work.

Research projects include a National Science Foundation Collaborative Award (2022-2025) investigating 'Function and form in the 'what' family of signs in American Sign Language,' led with Erin Wilkinson and Ryan Lepic (Grant #2141350). She has been actively presenting at conferences, including a 2024 panel on 'Crip Linguistics.'

• Awards: UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Teaching: Courses include Sign Languages & Signing Communities, First Language Acquisition, and Language Socialization at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Her work integrates linguistic analysis with sociocultural contexts, advocating for inclusive methodologies in linguistic research and education.