Donovan Grose to Discuss Evolution Between Language and Gesture May 13 at WWU

Donovan Grose, a professor of English at the Hang Seng Management College in Hong Kong, will present his work on some of the linguists' biggest questions surrounding language faculty, acquisition, evolution and the interface between language and gesture at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 13, in Miller Hall Room 231 on Western Washington University’s campus.

The lecture, “Language, Modality, and Evolution,” is free and open to the public.

Grose graduated from Western with a double major in Linguistics and Psychology in 2000. He completed his master’s degree and doctorate at Purdue, researching the linguistics of non-manuals in American Sign Language (ASL) and event structure in ASL and English. In 2008, he moved to Hong Kong to the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and, in 2010, to Hang Seng Management College, where he helped to set up a new English Department and major of study. The college will graduate its first cohort of English majors this year. His current areas of research include the relationship between gesture and language, and linguistic evolution in sign and spoken languages. Grose continues to live in Hong Kong, which he describes as one of the most densely-populated and culturally vibrant cities in world.

The event is sponsored by the Linguistics Program and the CHSS Dean’s Office, and is also part of Western’s Back2Bellingham alumni festivities.

For more information, contact Kristin Denham, Linguistics program director, at kristin.denham@wwu.edu or (360) 650-3217.