Dr. Karen Emmorey
Distinguished Professor
SDSU School of Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences
Phone: (619) 594-8080
Office: 6495 Alvarado Rd, Suite 200
Email: kemmorey@sdsu.edu
Biography
Dr. Karen Emmorey is the Director of the Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience, which is home to one of the most comprehensive sign language research programs in the world. She received her doctorate in Linguistics in 1987 from the University of California, Los Angeles, and she was a Senior Staff Scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies until 2005.
Dr. Emmorey’s research focuses on what sign languages can reveal about the nature of human language, cognition, and the brain. She studies the processes involved in how deaf and hearing people produce and comprehend sign language and how these processes are represented in the brain. Her research interests also include bimodal bilingualism (i.e., sign-speech bilingualism) and the neurocognitive underpinnings of reading skill in profoundly deaf adults. Dr. Emmorey is the author/editor of 4 books and more than 100 journal articles and chapters. She currently holds research grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Books
