I am a psycholinguist specialising in gestural communication in hearing and hearing-impaired populations.
I am currently a PhD student in Linguistics and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Potsdam (Germany) and Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) through the IDEALAB PhD program. I investigate cross-situational learning of gestures in childhood and infancy using brain and behavioural measures, under the joint supervision of Outi Tuomainen, Mridula Sharma, Natalie Boll-Avetisyan, and Amanda Saksida.
I came to academia after several years of working as a freelance sign language interpreter and teacher for the deaf. As an interpreter, I specialized in conference interpreting in educational and artistic settings (university courses, guided tours, museums, and travels). As a teacher, I worked in primary schools with deaf children with cochlear implants, using the bi-modal method to support the acquisition of spoken language and foster communication skills.
Since 2017, I have been collaborating with the Baby Signs group in Italy to promote research on the use of gestures in early infancy. In 2021, I obtained my first research scholarship at the Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCSS “Burlo Garofolo”, Trieste (Italy) to investigate the use of gestures in clinical settings.
I am now based in Berlin. You may often find me rollerblading in Tempelhofer Feld, trying to make sense of life, the universe, and everything by listening to news, science, and history podcasts.
Contact
Potsdam: colombani [at] uni-potsdam [dot] de
Macquarie: arianna.colombani [at] mq [dot] edu [dot] au
Personal email: colombaniarianna [at] gmail [dot] com