Academic Publications (peer-reviewed)

Marshall, C., Mason, K., Rowley, K., Herman, R., Atkinson, J., Woll, B., & Morgan, G. (2015). Sentence Repetition in Deaf Children with Specific Language Impairment in British Sign Language. Language Learning and Development, 11 (3), 237-251. doi:10.1080/15475441.2014.917557

Herman, R., Rowley, K., Mason, K., & Morgan, G. (2014) ‘Deficits in narrative abilities in child British Sign Language users with specific language impairment.’ International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders doi: 10.1111/1460-6984. 12078

Herman, R., Rowley, K., Marshall, C.R., Mason, K., Atkinson, J.R., Woll, B & Morgan, G. (2014) ‘Profiling SLI in Deaf children who are Sign Language Users’ in Multilingual Matters: Communication Disorders Across Languages, Quintos-Pozos, D. (Ed) (2014), (pp 45-69).

Marshall, C. R., Rowley, K. & Atkinson, J. (2013) 'Modality-dependent and -independent factors in the organization of the signed language lexicon: Insights from semantic and phonological fluency tasks in BSL', Journal of Psycholinguistic Research doi 10.1007/s10936-013-9271-5

Marshall, C.R., Rowley, K., Mason, K., Herman, R., & Morgan, G. (2013) ‘Lexical organisation in deaf children who use British Sign Language: Evidence from a semantic fluency task.’ Journal of Child Language 40, 193-220

Mason, K., Rowley, K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J.R., Herman, R., Woll, B & Morgan, G. (2010) Identifying Specific Language Impairment in Deaf children acquiring British Sign Language: Implications for theory and practice. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28 (Pt 1), pp 33-49. doi:10.1348/026151009x484190.

Book Chapters (peer-reviewed)

Herman, R. & Rowley, K. (2021). Issues in the development of sign language tests for L1 learners. In Haug, T., Knoch, U. & Mann, W. (Eds.), Handbook of Language Assessment across Modalities. Oxford University Press.

Rowley, K. (2020). Sign Language Acquisition. In S. Hupp & J. Jewell (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development. Wiley Blackwell.

Professional History

October 2019 - present:

  • Post-doc. Fellowship, funded by ESRC UBEL DTP. Exploring language and literacy in deaf children and adults to improve outcomes. University College London.

September 2018 - May 2019:

  • Module Coordinator. MSc Lang Sci core module on Deafness, Cognition & Language. University College London - 0.1 FTE.

July 2017 - September 2019:

  • Research Fellow. Language and Reading Interventions in Deaf and Hearing Children Project. City University London - 0.4 FTE.

May 2017 - September 2019:

  • Post-doc. Researcher. Language Attitudes Project. Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL) at UCL - 0.4 FTE.

October 2012 – September 2013:

  • Research Assistant. Changing Language and Identities Project. Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre at University College London

July 2007 – September 2012:

  • Research Assistant. Specific Language Impairment (SLI) Project. City University London & Deafness, Cognition and Language (DCAL) Research Centre, University College London (UCL)

September 1999 – June 2001:

  • Lecturer. British Sign Language. Cornwall College (CACDP: Council for the Advancement of Deaf People at Stage 1 & Stage 2)

Public Relations (media)

Media Coverage (television and radio)

Rowley, K. (July 2019). Interviewed by Stephen Fry about British Sign Language, ‘Sign of the Times’ on Fry’s English Delights (Series 10, episode 10), BBC Radio 4

Rowley, K. (May 2019). Interviewed on ‘Racist Signs in BSL’, See Hear, BBC TWO.

Hitchins, A., Lewis, S., Holmans, A., Grover, A., Wakefield, T., Cormier, K., Rowley, K. & MacSweeney, M. (2019). ‘Early support for deaf children aged 0 to 5 years’. MESHGuides, http://www.meshguides.org

Rowley, K. (March 2015). Interviewed on ‘Literacy levels in the deaf population’ (one of main contributors on programme), See Hear, BBC TWO.

Media Coverage (magazines)

Rowley, K. & Mason, K. (March 2010) Specific Language Impairment In Sign Language An Update On Current Research. BATOD Association Magazine

Rowley, K., Mason, K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (December 2009) ‘Discovering Language Impairment in British Sign Language’ British Deaf News

Rowley, K., Mason, K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (January 2008) ‘Signs of Language Impairment’ BATOD Association Magazine

Rowley, K., Mason, K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (December 2007) ‘Signs of Language Impairment’ Sign Matters (currently British Deaf News)

Academic Appointments & Affiliations

August 2015 - present:

  • Reviewer for several journals including British Journal of Developmental Disorders, Research in Developmental Disabilities and Journal of Memory & Language.

  • Reviewer for a book Manual Sign Language Acquisition in children with developmental disabilities (Grove and Launonen, 2019)

January 2017 - June 2017:

  • Advisory committee member. Reading Online Project, facilitated by Wolfgang Mann (Roehampton), Robin Thompson (Birmingham) and Rachel O’Neill (Edinburgh).

January - December 2016:

  • Advisory committee member. Reading and dyslexia in deaf children: the special case of deaf children who sign project facilitated by Ros Herman, Penny Roy & Fiona Kyle at City University London.

June 2011 - July 2012:

  • Organising committee member. Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR 11), University College London.

Other Appointments and Affiliations (non-academic)

Dec 2018 - June 2019:

  • External Marker & Assessor. Institute of British Sign Language (IBSL)

Sept 2017 - Oct 2018:

  • Governor. Blanche Nevile School for Deaf Children

Sept 2017 - Oct 2018:

  • Governor. Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children

June 2017 - Oct 2018:

  • Trustee. Institute of British Sign Language (IBSL)

Translation works

April 2019. Translation of British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children (BATOD) magazine article, ‘The Brain Needs Language’, London, U.K. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV7QD2NOS24&t=185sApril 2019. Translation of a summary of a journal article, ‘Bilingualism, a pearl to overcome certain perils of cochlear implantations’ (Humphries et al., 2014), London, U.K. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjmcFr4upS8

August 2015 to April 2018. Translation of the Social Responsiveness Scale-2 (SRS2) for National Deaf Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (NDCAMHS), York.

December 2017. Translation of British Sign Language Linguistic Information for Signworld, Bristol, U.K.

December 2015. Translation of instructions for the British Sign Language Vocabulary Assessment for University College London, London.

July 2015. Translation of British Sign Language Receptive Skills Test for City, University of London, London.

October 2015. Expert panel for translations of Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS2) for National Deaf Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (NDCAMHS), York.

2010. Translation of Deafness, Cognition and Language (DCAL) webpage contents, University College London, London.

2008. Translation of instructions and presenter for British Sign Language Sentence Repetition Task (BSL SRT) specifically designed for the Specific Language Impairment (SLI) Project, City, University of London and University College London.

Trainings given (non-academic)

March 2020 - June 2020 (4-day workshop, one day per month): BSL Linguistics Spring School at Frank Barnes for Deaf Children. Designed and delivered the course, which covers linguistics, sociolinguistics, sign language acquisition and assessment.

November 2019: ‘Reflections on the impact of 40 years of BSL research on the Deaf Community’. Presentation delivered at the ‘40 years since the first workshop on British Sign Language (Deaf community outreach event)’, Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London, 9th November 2019.

July 2019: ‘Introduction to Linguistics’, training delivered to teachers of BSL at the Institute of British Sign Language, Warrington, U.K.

June 2019: ‘Introduction to Linguistics’, training delivered to teachers of BSL at the Institute of British Sign Language, Warrington, U.K.

March 2019 to June 2019 (4-day workshop, one day per month): BSL Linguistics Spring School at Frank Barnes for Deaf Children. Designed and delivered the course, which covered linguistics, sociolinguistics, sign language acquisition and assessment.

May 2019: DCAL Assessment Portal (training delivered to practitioners working in mental health and deafness), National Deaf Mental Health Service, 17th May 2019.

March 2019: ‘How do Deaf Children Develop Literacy Skills’, presentation delivered as part of an audiology seminar led by the British Deaf Association (BDA) in Antrim, Northern Ireland, 20th March 2019.

November 2018: ‘Language Attitudes in BSL (British Sign Language)’. Organiser and Presenter for the ‘BSL Corpus 10 Year Celebration Event (Deaf community outreach event)’, Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, University College London, 3 November 2018.

Sept 2017: Language Therapy in British Sign Language, course co-delivered with Dr. Joanna Hoskin to practitioners working with deaf children in mental health and educational settings. https://www.city.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd/language-therapy-in-bsl-course

June 2017: ‘Introduction to Linguistics’, training delivered to teachers of BSL at Hands2Sign, Glasgow, Scotland.

April 2017: ‘Sign Language Acquisition and Language Disorders’, training delivered to Sign Language Interpreters via a webinar organised by Linguistpd.

2010 - 2017 : ‘Introduction to Linguistics and Sign Language Acquisition’, training delivered (triennially) to family support workers, teachers and speech and language therapists. Course run by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS).

Apr 2016: Language Therapy in British Sign Language, course co-delivered with Dr. Joanna Hoskin to practitioners working with deaf children in mental health and educational settings. https://www.city.ac.uk/study/courses/cpd/language-therapy-in-bsl-course

July 2011: ‘Specific Language Impairment in BSL.’ Presentation at DCAL Roadshow. (feedback to Deaf community event, funded by UCL Public Engagement Unit Beacon Bursary), Bristol, 11th July 2011.

2011: ‘Specific Language Impairment in BSL.’ Presentation at DCAL Roadshow. (feedback to Deaf community event, funded by UCL Public Engagement Unit Beacon Bursary), Manchester, 2011.

Sept 2009: ‘Communication Delay’, training delivered to teaching staff at Frank Barnes School for the Deaf

March 2009: Specific Language Impairment in Signing Deaf Children: the project so far and Deaf and Hearing Co-Workers in Assessment’ Presentation to Speech and Language Therapists in Bilingualism and Deafness Group

Feb 2008: Deaf Child and Family Service, High Trees, Springfield University Hospital. Presentation to specialist Speech and Language Therapists. Specific Language Impairment and Deaf children.

Presentations, posters & workshops

Rowley, K., Fenlon, J. & Cormier, K. (2019.) Metalinguistic Awareness of Regional Variation in British Sign Language. Poster presented at the 13th Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research Conference, Hamburg, Germany, 26-28 September 2019.

Rowley, K, Fenlon, J & Cormier, K. 2018. Language Attitudes in the British Deaf Community: Attitudes towards British Sign Language and Sign Supported English. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB), Sheffield, UK, 11-14 September 2018.

Rowley, K., Fenlon, J. & Cormier, K. (2018). ‘Attitudes to Age Variation and Language Change in the British Deaf Community’. Presentation accepted at the 1st International Workshop on Cognition and Functional Explorations in Sign Language Linguistics (SIGN CAFÉ 1), Birmingham, United Kingdom, 30-31st July, 2018

Rowley, K., MacSweeney, M. & Vigliocco, G. (2017).Reading with Deaf Eyes: exploring phonological, semantic and orthographic processing using the visual world paradigm’. Poster accepted at the 2nd International Convention of Psychological Science (ICPS), Vienna, Austria, 23-25 March 2017

Rowley, K. (2017). ‘Sign Language Acquisition and Language Disorders’. Invited Lecture at the ‘Deaf Studies and Interpreting Co-Curricular Conference’, Wolverhampton, UK, 15th February 2017

Rowley, K. (2016). ‘Is my research ‘community-driven’?’. Workshop presented at the 4th Bridging the Gap Conference, Brighton, UK, 12th November, 2016

Rowley, K., Vinson, D.P. & Vigliocco, G. (2015). ‘Visual Word Recognition in Deaf Readers’. Paper presented at the 22nd International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED), Athens, Greece, 6-9 July 2015

Rowley, K. & Vigliocco, G. (2015) ‘Do deaf readers process phonology?’. Poster presented at the 2nd International Conference of Sign Language Acquisition (ICSLA), Amsterdam, Holland, 1-3 July 2015

Rowley, K., Johal, I. and Woll, B. (2013) 'Language and Identity of Young Deaf People'. Paper presented at I-Mean Conference 3, Bristol, United Kingdom, 18-20 April 2013

Fenlon, J., Rowley, K. & Cormier, K. (2013) Lexicalisation in British Sign Language: Implications for phonological theory. Paper presented at the 11th Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research Conference, University College London, 10-13 July 2013.

Cormier, K., Adam, R., Rowley, K., Woll, B. & Atkinson, J. (2012) The British Sign Language Sentence Reproduction Test: Exploring age-of-acquisition effects in British deaf adults. Paper presented at Experimental Studies in Sign Language Research Workshop at the Annual Meeting of the German Linguistics Society (DGfS), Frankfurt, Germany, 7 March 2012.

Rowley, K., Mason,K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (September 2011) ‘Specific Language Impairment in British Sign Language’ Postgraduate Conference on Current Issues in Sign Linguistics, Deafness and Cognition (CISLDC), University College London (UCL), London, UK

Rowley, K., Mason,K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (June 2011) ‘Overview of BSL Linguistics and Language Acquisition of BSL’ Lost for Words, Lost for Life Conference, City University, London, UK

Rowley, K., Mason,K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (June 2011) ‘Specific Language Impairment in British Sign Language’ Lost for Words, Lost for Life Conference, City University, London, UK

Rowley, K., Mason,K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (2010) ‘Specific Language Impairment in British Sign Language’ International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED), Vancouver, BA, Canada

Mason, K., Rowley, K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (January 2010) ‘Let the Children Speak’ SLI Conference Poster Presentation

Mason, K., Rowley, K., Marshall, C.R., Atkinson, J., Herman, R., Woll, B. and Morgan, G., (September 2009) UCL Health Symposium Poster Presentation

Mason, K. and Rowley, K. (January 2009) UCL The Experimental Psychology Society Annual Meeting, University College London. ‘Specific Language Impairment (SLI) in British Sign Language (BSL)’.

Scholarships & Grants (awards)

May 2019:

  • ESRC UBEL Post-Doctoral Fellowship: ‘Exploring language and literacy in deaf children and adults to improve outcomes’ 12-month fellowship. £89,864.46 awarded. Fellowship awarded to Kate Rowley. Mentor: Prof. Mairead MacSweeney. University College London.

January 2017:

  • ESRC Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (SDAI): ‘Language attitudes in the British deaf community: Evidence from the British Sign Language Corpus’. £158,733 awarded for a 18 months project. Principal Investigator: Kearsy Cormier. Co-Investigators: Kate Rowley & Jordan Fenlon. University College London.

September 2012:

  • ESRC Studentship: ‘Visual Word Recognition in Deaf Readers: the interplay between orthographic, semantic and phonological information’. Grant of £80,988 awarded to Gabriella Vigliocco & Robin Thompson. University College London. (One plus three funding).

Academic prizes

June 2004: The Deaf Studies Trust Annual Award in Bristol for outstanding dissertation on the completion of the BSc in Social Sciences (Deaf Studies), ‘Exploring Regional Variations in British Sign Language (BSL)’. University of Bristol.

Academic Supervision

June 2019 - Nov 2019:

  • Dissertation Committee member. Patrick Rosenburg for his Ed.D. dissertation. ‘ASL-Text Comprehension in Deaf Children’. Boston University.

Jan - Apr 2015:

  • Supervisor. BSc Psychology student projects (3 students)

Oct 2011 - Aug 2012:

  • Secondary Supervisor. MA Linguistics student project: Dorothy Miteva

Invited Keynotes & Talks

Invited Keynotes

Rowley, K. (2021). ‘Sign Language Acquisition’. Invited Keynote presentation for the 4th International Conference on Sign Language Acquisition (ICSLA), Boston University, Boston, MA, June 2021

Rowley, K. (2019). ‘Visual Word Recognition in Deaf Readers’. Invited Keynote presentation for the Workshop on Multimodal Language Use (LingCologne), in Cologne, Germany, 6-7 June, 2019

Rowley, K. (2018). ‘Typically Atypical: Implications for Sign Language Assessment’. Invited Keynote for the Sign Language Acquisition and Assessment (SLAAC) Conference, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel, November 2018

Rowley, K. (2018). ‘Visual Word Recognition in Deaf Readers: The interplay between orthography, semantics and phonological information’. Invited keynote presentation for the Workshop on Reading and Language in Deafness (WoRLD), in San Sebastian, Spain, 18-20 October, 2018

Other Invited Talks

Rowley, K. (2020). ‘Visual Word Recognition in Deaf Readers’. Invited lecture at Gallaudet University, Washington D.C., April 2020

Rowley, K. (2019). ‘Visual Word Recognition in Deaf Readers’. Invited lecture at Boston University, November 2019

Rowley, K. (2019). ‘How do deaf children develop language and literacy?’. Invited lecture at Institute of Education (IOE), June 2019

Rowley, K. (2019). ‘Reading Development in Bilingual Deaf Children’. Invited lecture at University of Birmingham (delivered to trainee teachers of deaf children), January 2019