Faculty | SIU

American Sign Language

Kimberly Berger fell into the Deaf World while finishing her bachelor’s degree in 1991. It was her very first American Sign Language class at SIU that launched her passion for ASL and the people who use it. Its art, literature, politics and cultural ideals captured her heart for a lifetime! Kimberly has been serving the deaf community as a nationally certified interpreter for more than a quarter century. She earned her master’s degree in Applied Linguistics while continuing to study the structure, discourse, and history of American Deaf people.

Her teaching focus is the introductory levels of ASL but she has also taught Linguistics of ASL, Fingerspelling, Numbering Systems of ASL and ASL Classifiers. Kimberly’s research interests center on language deprivation and its effect on deaf education & the birth of Nicaraguan Sign Language. Kimberly’s greatest desire is to pass along the gift of ASL to her students so that they can communicate with Deaf people and other users of ASL. “I am humbled to have the opportunity to guide my students in their journeys as they work toward their personal and professional goals in ASL; I want them to become connected to the Deaf World during their time at SIU and beyond this campus.”