This project is based on multisited field work during international deaf courses and conventions such as the Frontrunners course, the World Federation of the Deaf Congress, SIGN (the International Conference of Sign Language Users), Clin D’Oeil (a deaf cultural event organised in France) and the Deaflympics (a global sports event). The project investigates:

(a) how the use of International Sign is practiced during general announcements, lectures, presentations, teaching, discussions, and social gatherings

(b) opinions about the qualities needed for optimal communication and translation in International Sign,

(c) lived experiences of affordances and constraints of International Sign,

(d) experiences of bias or influence of English, American Sign Language and West-European sign languages in International Sign, and

(e) other forms of communicative crossing in international deaf contexts

Published papers:

Kusters, A. (2025). International Sign: Nature and Nomenclature. Annual Review of Linguistics. Vol 11 

Kusters, A. (2024). More Than Signs: International Sign as Distributed Practice. Signs and Society, 12(1), 37-57.

Kusters, A. (2021). International Sign and American Sign Language as Different Types of Global Deaf Lingua Francas. Sign Language Studies, 21(4), 391-426.

Moriarty, E., & Kusters, A. (2021). Deaf cosmopolitanism: calibrating as a moral process. International Journal of Multilingualism, 18(2), 285-302.

Kusters, A. (2020). The tipping point: On the use of signs from American Sign Language in International Sign. Language & Communication, 75, 51-68.

Films:

Kusters, Annelies and Rijckaert, Jorn. This is IS: Easy Come, Easy Go? 50 minutes. Edited by Visual Box. Produced by HWU. https://vimeo.com/809000011

Kusters, Annelies and Rijckaert, Jorn. This is IS: One Size Fits All? 63 minutes. Edited by Visual Box. Produced by HWU. https://vimeo.com/783318465 2023

Kusters, Annelies and Rijckaert, Jorn. This is IS: Is IS more visual? 51 minutes. Edited by Visual Box. Produced by HWU. https://vimeo.com/744713507

Kusters, Annelies and Rijckaert, Jorn. This is IS: Is this International Sign? 46 minutes. Edited by Visual Box. Produced by HWU. https://vimeo.com/728777656

Kusters, Annelies and Rijckaert, Jorn. This is IS: International Sign Crash Course. 54 minutes. Edited by Visual Box. Produced by HWU. https://vimeo.com/744266936

Kusters, Annelies and Rijckaert, Jorn. International Sign Unpacked. 88 minutes. Edited by Visual Box. Produced by Heriot-Watt University. https://vimeo.com/686852215