Emma Asonye

Dr. Emma Asonye is a Sign Language Linguist and a Speech and Hearing Scientist; he is the CEO of S-DELI, a research-based organization leading the documentation of Indigenous African Sign Languages. Dr. Asonye is also an affiliate member of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and a member of Gallaudet University/Nigeria Project. He also runs an expository and educational series on YouTube, called the Indigenous Hands the Indigenous Voices (www.YouTube.com/c/SDELI). Dr. Asonye has a Bachelor in Linguistics and Igbo, Masters in Linguistics, both from Imo State University, Nigeria and his PhD in Linguistics and Communications from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, plus a postdoctoral non-degree course in Speech and Hearing Sciences and Sign Language Linguistics at the University of New Mexico during his time as a Visiting Research Scholar. 

While his research interest spans across sign language documentation, sign language linguistics and speech and hearing sciences, Dr. Asonye is passionate about early language access for deaf children in the indigenous sign languages, early intervention program for deaf children and children with other language and communication related disabilities and the documentation and development of indigenous African sign languages for wider and scientific use. Dr. Emma Asonye is the convener of the first conference on indigenous African signed and spoken languages – the Conference on Indigenous Hands and Voices of African Identity (IHVAIC21, https://www.s-deli.org/indigenous-hands-and-voices-of-african-identity/). Dr. Asonye is currently working to develop a sign language app and a web-based pedagogy for indigenous sign languages in Africa.