Wendy Sandler, a distinguished professor of linguistics at the University of Haifa and Founding Director of the norther Israeli institution's Sign Language Research Lab was inducted into the prestigious American of Arts and Sciences this week.
Members of the academy are selected as people recognized for discovering advanced knowledge, and those who apply knowledge to the problems of society. The Academy describes itself as both an honorary society that recognizes and celebrates the excellence of its members, and an independent research center that convenes leaders from across disciplines, professions, and perspectives to address significant global challenges.
“The mission and values of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences bring together seemingly disparate approaches to understanding and improving the human condition, and I am proud and deeply honored to become a member,” Sandler said.
Sandler is the fifth Israeli women to be accepted as a member into the academy, joining the ranks of other notable figures such as Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and Nelson Mandela.
Most recently Sandler's work has turned to the emergence of new sign languages and ways in which the body is recruited to manifest increasingly complex linguist form within a community of signers. She has developed models of sign language phonology and prosody, the patterns of stress and intonations in a language, that exploit general linguistic principles to reveal both the similarities and the differences in natural languages in two modalities. Earning her PhD in linguistics from the University of Texas - Austin in 1987, Sandler has authored or co-authored three books, such as "The Story of Israeli Sign Language," co-authored by the late Irit Meir, who among other accomplishments was also a distinguished professor of linguistics at Haifa University.
“The study of sign languages illuminates the universal human genius for language, and it is only through language that we can formulate and share ideas, science, and art," said Sandler.
"Through this work, contact with the deaf world has taught me that in diversity there is unity, if we can open our minds to both. Our sign language theater of the body reaches across the barrier between deaf and hearing audiences, leading to profound shared experience."The academy was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by notable historical figures such as John Hancock and John Adams, along with 60 other academics of the time. They founded the academy with the understanding that a new nation would require institutions that would further gather knowledge and advanced learning for the greater good of the public.