Liona Paulus is a German linguist and academic specializing in sign language linguistics, Deaf Studies, and accessibility. She is currently part of the leadership at the Institute for German Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf (Institut für Deutsche Gebärdensprache und Kommunikation Gehörloser, IDGS) at the University of Hamburg.
Early Life and Education
Paulus grew up using both German Sign Language (DGS) and spoken German, a bilingual foundation that later became central to her academic work[2]. She pursued her studies in linguistics with a strong focus on sign language research. In 2021, she completed her doctoral dissertation at the University of Göttingen. Her dissertation provided an empirical sociolinguistic analysis of conditional clauses in German Sign Language and Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), contributing to comparative sign language research[3].
Academic Career
Following her doctoral studies, Paulus held academic positions in German higher education. She worked as a research assistant at the University of Cologne, where she taught courses in Deaf Studies, Translation Studies, and Interpreting Practice[2]. Her teaching emphasized both the linguistic and cultural dimensions of signed languages, as well as issues of accessibility and inclusion.
Paulus later joined the University of Hamburg, where she became a member of the leadership team at the IDGS. Her role includes academic leadership, research coordination, and the promotion of sign language teaching and accessibility in higher education[1]. She has also worked as a consultant for ViCom, where she provides expertise on Deaf culture, sign language, and accessibility issues[2].
Research and Contributions
Paulus’s research has primarily focused on sign language linguistics and sociolinguistics. Her doctoral work established a comparative framework for understanding conditional structures in DGS and Libras, marking a significant contribution to the cross-linguistic analysis of sign languages[3]. Beyond her dissertation, her academic interests include the professionalization of sign language teaching, sign language interpreting, and the intersection of linguistics with the lived experiences of the Deaf community[1][2].
- University of Hamburg – Institut für Deutsche Gebärdensprache und Kommunikation Gehörloser. (n.d.). Liona Paulus.
- ViCom Consultants. (n.d.). Liona Paulus.
- Paulus, L. (2021). Der Konditionalsatz in Deutscher Gebärdensprache (DGS) und Brasilianischer Gebärdensprache (Libras)-Eine empirische soziolinguistische Studie (Doctoral dissertation, Dissertation, Göttingen, Georg-August Universität, 2019).
