The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) is a research center for ethnology and cultural anthropology.

Staff Members

SAGARA Keiko
SAGARA KeikoSAGARA Keiko
Department of Advanced Human Sciences・Assistant Professor
Research Specialization
  • Sign Language Typology, Deaf education
Individual Research Projects
  • Historical Semantic Change in Japanese Sign Language, Taiwan Sign Language and Korean Sign language
Personal website http://www.r.minpaku.ac.jp/ksagara/index.html

Academic Qualifications

  • MPhil. University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK, 2014
  • M.A. University of Tsukuba, Japan 1999
  • B.A. National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education, Education, Japan 1995

Research Interests

  1. Studying new methods of comparing sign languages both synchronically and diachronically
  2. Numeral systems in sign languages around the world
  3. The need for Deaf Interpreters in deaf communities around the world

Research Keywords

Sign Language Typology, Historical linguistics of sign languages, Japanese Sign Language, Taiwan Sign Language

Publications (English publications only)

2016
(with Ulrike Zeshan) A Comparative Typological Study. In U. Zeshan, and K. Sagara （eds.）, Semantic Fields in Sign Languages: Colour, Kinship and Quantification. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter & Nijmegen: Ishara Press, pp. 3‒37.
2016
Aspects of Number and Kinship Terms in Japanese Sign Language. In U. Zeshan, & K. Sagara (eds.) Semantic Fields in Sign Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter and Nijmegen: Ishara Press, pp. 298-328.
2015
(with Angela Nonaka, Kate Mesh) Signed Names in Japanese Sign Language: Linguistic and Cultural Analyses, Sign Languages Studies 16（1）, pp. 57‒85.
2015
(with Ulrike Zeshan, Nick Palfreyman) Methods in Carrying Out Language Typological research. Research Methods in Sign Language Studies: A Practical Guide. Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 173-192.

Presentations

2016
(with Nick Palfreyman) Counting the difference: Variation in the number systems of Japanese, Taiwan and South Korean Sign Language. The 12th International Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research(TISLR12), Melbourne, Australia. January 4-7, 2016
2015
Numeral Systems in Sign Languages Across the World. The XVIIth World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf, Istanbul. July 28-August 1, 2015
2014
Historical Relationship between the Numeral Signs of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea Sign Languages. The International Summer School 2014: Current Issues in Sign Language Linguistics (CISL) . August 29, 2014
2014
(with Nick Palfreyman) Counting the difference: variation in the number systems of Japanese, Taiwan and South Korean Sign Language. New Ways of Analysing Variation Asia-Pacific 3. May 1-3, 2014