ABOUT ME
As a student of language-in-action, my research program focuses on communicative practices in a range of contexts and with different populations. In the past few years, I have developed two main strands of research:
Language Practices in Autism: I have carried out a number of studies that augment traditional research on autism: (1) by discerning dimensions of communicative competence in autistic children that were previously undocumented and largely unrecognized; and (2) by identifying interactional processes that have a bearing on the manifestation of autistic language.
Literacy as Social Practice: I examined how reading and writing practices mediate social interaction, in educational settings (e.g. school online forums) as well as in a medical context (e.g. the hospital’s oncology unit). I have advanced the notion of "endangered literacies" with the aim of deepening our understanding of (1) what seems sui generis of traditional forms of reading and writing and (2) how reading and writing are transformed in their enactment in the digital landscape.
CONTACT
University of California, Berkeley
2121 Berkeley Way, Rm 4222
Berkeley, CA 94720
© 2022 by Laura Sterponi