About the center
Since 2016, the center brings together research and teaching in the fields of gesture studies and speech sciences at the TU Chemnitz. The center is headed jointly by Prof. Dr. Ellen Fricke and Dr. Jana Bressem.
The main foci of the center are
- Training of students
- Development of new concepts for teacher education and training (taking into account research on multimodality and multimediality)
- Training of scientists at the TU Chemnitz in the field of multimodality and multimediality
- External courses and workshops for teachers, scientists, and interested parties from industry.
Teaching
The staff of the center is engaged in different study programs at the TU Chemnitz, such as elementary school, Applied Computer Sciences, German studies, Intercultural Communication as well as Semiotics and Multimodal Communication. The center offers basic and advanced courses on gesture studies and speech sciences.
Research
Research activities of the center cover a broad range of topics in the field of gesture studies, ranging from basics in the relation of speech and gesture to the description of gesture repertoires in endangered languages. A new line of research, as part of the main research area „Human Factors in Technology” of the TU Chemnitz, addresses the field of human-machine interaction. The speech sciences focus on ‘playful development of competences’, the further development of communicative practices, and skills by using methods from theater pedagogy.
