Dr. Wendy Sandler, a distinguished professor of linguistics at the University of Haifa and founding director of Israel’s Sign Language Research Lab. Photo: Courtesy.

An Israeli-American professor of linguistics is set to be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Wendy Sandler — a distinguished professor of linguistics at the University of Haifa and founding Director of Israel’s Sign Language Research Lab — will be the fifth Israeli woman and first Israeli in the humanities to be inducted into the Academy.

Sandler, who earned her PhD from the University of Texas-Austin, has engaged in extensive work and research in the field of sign language.

“For me, this honor weaves together the different strands of my work into a coherent whole,” she said. “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.”

“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,” Sandler added. “Our sign language theater of the body reaches across the barrier between deaf and hearing audiences, leading to profound shared experience.”

“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,” she said.

University of Haifa President Ron Robin stated, “University of Haifa warmly congratulates Wendy Sandler on this much-deserved honor, which will spread greater awareness about the pioneering research our community has already been privileged to witness up close.”

He described Sandler as “an American-Israeli scholar at the cutting edge of her field.”

“Wendy advances the connection between the US and Israel through excellence in academics and research,” he continued.