Natasha Abner

Natasha Abner is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the structure of sign languages, modality effects on language properties, and the emergence of language in communities and individuals. She leads an NSF-funded project investigating sign language and gesture across deaf signers, hearing non-signers, and learners of ASL. Her work on sign language histories and relationships has appeared in Science and popular media.

Dr. Abner directs the Sign Language & Multi-Modal Communication Lab and organizes the Language Across Modalities discussion group. Her research interests include psycholinguistics, morphosyntax, and the syntax-semantics interface, with fieldwork on Nicaraguan Sign Language and homesign systems. Grants and funding include National Science Foundation support for studies on sign language structure and gesture.

Her lab explores how language emerges in diverse modalities, combining experimental and computational methods. She has published widely on sign language syntax, gesture analysis, and the theoretical implications of signed systems for linguistic theory. Current projects investigate the cognitive and social factors shaping grammatical development in emerging sign languages.