Francie Manhardt (1991) came from Germany to the Netherlands to follow a Master’s in Linguistics. After graduating she worked as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. In January 2016 she started her PhD at Radboud University within the Multimodal Language and Cognition Group and explores whether knowing a sign language changes the way you perceive the world. Every day, someone is looking for his car keys or sunglasses. Are they behind the book, under the table or in front of the window? How do we convert this to language? To answer this question Francie will look at sign languages, natural languages used by deaf communities. Sign languages allow talking about space by moving the hands and body in space. So, does someone who speaks a spatial, visual sign language perceive spatial events differently?
Outside of work, she loves to cook and much more eating food. In addition, she enjoys listening to music, and is often spotted at the sports center where she is spinning, lifting weights and doing handstands (as good as she can…) in the new discovered gymnastic course.