Research by UC Davis linguistics professor Robert Bayley and colleagues on Black American Sign Language is now a Linguistics Society of America award winner.

Bayley shares the society’s 2022 Linguistics, Language and the Public Award, which recognizes work that increases public awareness and understanding of linguistics and language.

The growing visibility of Black Deaf signers — on TikTok, at Super Bowl 2021 and in a documentary screening nationwide — is also putting the spotlight on the work of a UC Davis linguist.

Professor Robert Bayley doesn’t consider himself a sign language specialist; as a sociolinguist, he studies language variation. But he has collaborated for 24 years with sign language experts at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and other universities for the Deaf.