Cristine Schaetz Fernández

Currently I am working on my doctoral thesis on Information Structure: Focalization in Spanish Sign Language (LSE) and, for this reason, I participate as an assistant researcher in the Spanish Ministry project Clause combining in sign languages: the grammar of complex sentences in Catalan Sign Language in a crosslinguistic and crossmodal perspective directed by Josep Quer (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).

I started my linguistics studies focusing on LSE in November of 2008. At the end of 2011 I was awarded the Diploma of Advanced Studies in Lingüísticade la Enunciación y su Aplicación al Estudio e Investigación de la Lengua Española from the Department of Spanish Language, Linguistics and Theory of Literature at the University of Seville. Mi research area was discourse analysis and pragmatic linguistics. Within this field I chose to delve into politeness and the sociolinguistic features of it carried out in Spanish Sign Language.

My interest in sign language began in 1999 when I registered for a distance course in American Sign Language (ASL). Shortly after, I went to the Cultural Association of Deaf People in Seville to sign up for LSE classes. I am a teacher of English and Spanish as second languages and I admit that, at first, my main reason for learning sign language was to help me better teach L2 without having to resort to the L1 of my students. Almost immediately, I realized how complex and beautiful this language was and I knew that I wanted to continue studying the linguistics of sign language. Then, in 2003 I registered for the Experto Universitario in Spanish Sign language at the University of Seville. En 2009 I also took another course to recycle and improve my language skills.

Aside from linguistics research in LSE, what I really love is teaching as an art. From 2011 to June 2013, I taught English at the Language Institute at the University of Seville. From 1998 until 2011, I taught at the English Language Institute at the University of Utah in the academic and intensive summer programs. In 2007, I worked with the Deaf community in a literacy course funded by the City Hall of Seville. In addition, I have also taught at the Educational Sciences Institute at the University of Seville.

Lastly, I mention that I am a copy editor for the journal Iberia: An International Journal of Theoretical Linguistics (2009-present).