Professor Lorraine Leeson (female) holds a Dip. Deaf Studies (interpreting), M.Phil Linguistics, PhD. Linguistics. Cert. Gender Studies. She is Professor in Deaf Studies at the Centre for Deaf Studies, School of Linguistics, Speech and Communication Sciences and Associate Dean of Research (Research Integrity) for Trinity College Dublin (2018-present). Prof Leeson has worked with Deaf communities in a range of capacities since 1990. She served as inaugural Director of the Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity College Dublin from 2001-17. Her  research work is multidisciplinary in nature. Her doctoral work was the first to examine aspects of the morphosyntax of Irish Sign Language, and subsequent to this, she has published widely on aspects of the grammar of Irish Sign Language, as well as on applied linguistics topics, including a significant body of work on sign language interpreting (16 books, 58 papers, 13 edited volumes (journals/monographs) and 100+ peer-reviewed conference papers). She was named a European Commission European Language Ambassador for her work on sign languages in 2008. Lorraine was a member of the first cohort of professionally trained Irish Sign Language/English interpreters in Ireland, and she continues to interpret. She has engaged in pan-European research work with academic institutions, Deaf communities and interpreting organisations since 1990, serving as Chair of the European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters Committee of Experts (2013-2019). She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Committee on Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLC) (2018-present).