I am the Academic Coordinator for American Sign Language education in the Linguistics Language Program (LLP) and a Senior Continuing Lecturer in Linguistics at UC San Diego. I earned my PhD in Anthropology and Folklore from the University of Texas, Austin in 1998. My academic interests are the archaeology and poetics of ASL, French Sign Language (LSF) and International Sign (IS). The courses I love to teach include:
ASL Poetry and Performance (LIGN 144)
Sociolinguistics of Deaf Communities (LIGN 146)
Sign Languages and Deaf Culture in the U.S. and France (LIGN 9GS)
The Historical Roots of ASL (LIGN 149GS)
ASL 1A/AX, 1B/BX, 1C/CX, 1D/DX, 1E
In Summer Session 1 of 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, I taught "Sign Language Studies in Paris," a five week UC San Diego Global Seminar (8 units of Linguistics - LIGN 9GS and LIGN 149GS) including up to 10 excursions with LSF guides to Deaf sites in France and several French guest lecturers. LIGN 149GS fulfills the UC San Diego Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) requirement. Thank you to the team at UC San Diego Today for sharing about this program here: https://today.ucsd.edu/story/signing-in-the-city-of-light
For more information about the 2026 Global Seminar, please visit https://studyabroad.ucsd.edu/students/programs/global-seminars/paris-asl.html or reach out to me via email. Info sessions will be available during Fall 2025 and Winter 2026.
Beginning in Spring 2024, the LLP offers students the choice of taking the beginning level of ASL in-person (LISL 1A/1AX) or fully remote (LISL 1AR). LISL 1AR was developed by a team of professionals including a Senior Instructional Designer at the Digital Learning Hub and an expert Multimedia Producer. We are truly excited about the opportunity to offer introductory ASL experience to both our own UC San Diego students as well as others elsewhere in California. As of Spring 2025, the LISL 1AR course is available for students of other UCs through UC Online.
Everyone is welcome to hang out with the UC San Diego ASL Club! Congratulations to club leaders for hosting a return of "ASL Poetry Night" at the Ché Café on June 4, 2025 with over 75 people in attendance viewing 20 volunteer performers who shared poems, stories, jokes and songs in ASL. We can't wait to see your events in 2025/26!
Instagram: @aslclub.ucsd
Discord: https://discord.gg/dKCgAakXgA
Club Email: aslclubatucsandiego@gmail.com
E-mail: plott@ucsd.edu
Sign name: LIPSTICK [Merci, Bruno Moncelle!]
9500 Gilman Dr. #0108, La Jolla, CA 92093-0108
I respectfully acknowledge that we live and work on the land of the Kumeyaay/Kumiai nation. / Whose land are you on?
Fall 2025 TBA
99 Variations on a Proof https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13308.html
The Gallaudet Children's Dictionary of American Sign Language http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/bookpage/GCDASLbookpage.html
The Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/bookpage/GDASLbookpage.html
Deaf in America, Voices from a Culture http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674194243&content=reviews
Learning American Sign Language https://www.amazon.com/Learning-American-Sign-Language-II-Beginning/dp/0205275532
Signs for Me, Basic Sign Vocabulary for Children, Parents and Teachers https://www.dawnsign.com/products/details/signs-for-me-basic-vocabulary-for-children-parents-teachers-1
TOP PANEL is a candid snapshot of an adult white person with shoulder length red hair, clear framed glasses and a long sleeve gray button down shirt, with hands in the air. Over the photo the heading in white font says "Peggy Swartzel Lott, Academic Coordinator, Continuing Lecturer, American Sign Language"
Below the top panel, on the left side there are 3 playable videos (transcripts below). On the right side, in black font on a white background, information is shared under the following blue font headings: About Me, Contact Information, Office Hours, Sign illustration and video production publications.
1st VIDEO transcript: STUDY ASL AT UC SAN DIEGO
Opening screen: THIS VIDEO HAS NO SOUND - ON PURPOSE
For a minute, we want you to experience American Sign Language the way a deaf person might.
Title: Peggy Lott, Academic Coordinator for ASL, UC San Diego
[Peggy is a white adult person with shoulder length red hair, wearing clear glasses and a V-neck black sweater. The video background is plain, dark gray.]
Peggy signs: I’m hearing. However - I’m a lucky hearing person. Why? Because a long time ago, when I was a child, I met a woman who is deaf - and I became fascinated with her signing. For the past 20 years, I’ve been coordinating the teaching of ASL in UC San Diego’s Linguistics Language Program. We have 250-300 students studying ASL with us each year.
Title: Brad Cohen, ASL Instructor, UC San Diego
[Brad is a young adult white male with dark brown short hair, wearing a light gray polo shirt]
Brad signs: You can even minor in ASL! I’m deaf. ASL is essential to Deaf culture. It’s really awesome for deaf and hearing people to come together and interact. It’s a better place for deaf people.
Peggy signs: That’s great for hearing people too. Communicating visually is so… enriching. It’s opened my mind in so many ways. Come join us! Thank you.
Brad signs: Thank you!
Closing screen:
Logo: UC San Diego
2nd VIDEO transcript: Book Trailer: The Gallaudet Children's Dictionary of ASL
Against a white background with a blue horizontal stripe across the top and a yellow vertical stripe down the left side, a series of 12 children in bright colored T-shirts sign one ASL sign each with English translations printed on the screen. The 12 signs are: ACT, BEAUTIFUL, CANDY, CAR, CAT, EARTH, GHOST, HAPPY, HOPE, INVESTIGATE, KID, RAINBOW.
In between the children signers, four adults sign the following sentences in ASL:
Young adult white male signer with blonde hair wearing a light purple T-shirt signs “Last Saturday we washed the car.”
Young adult Black female signer wearing a pink T-shirt signs “This cat is afraid of a little mouse.”
Young adult white female signer with long blonde curly hair wearing a sleeveless red shirt signs “We all need to take care of the earth.”
Adult Latino male signer with dark hair and mustache in a purple T-shirt signs “The children are happy when Dad comes home.”
Closing titles:
On the left an image of the cover of the Dictionary,
on the right in white font on a black background:
Brought to you by The Gallaudet Children’s Dictionary of American Sign Language
By the Editors of Gallaudet University Press
Available NOW at your local bookstore or gupress.gallaudet.edu
Logo: GU PRESS
3rd VIDEO transcript: Sign Language Studies in Paris UC San Diego
A white adult person with shoulder length red hair wearing a gold beret and a green shirt is sitting in a French cafe looking at photographs. As the camera approaches, they look up and sign the following in LSF. English subtitles appear in white font at the bottom of the screen. Images of Paris sights are interspersed with the signed portion of the video.
Bonjour! Ça va? These photos of Paris remind me of when I lived there for 5 months some years ago!
[images of the Eiffel Tower, an artist painting the Pont Neuf, the Arc de Triumph and a café table with fruit, croissants and coffee]
I lived at the world’s first deaf school at rue St. Jacques… I taught a group of deaf students preparing to visit Gallaudet University. I helped them learn ASL so they could communicate easily while in the United States. I also learned from them! They shared with me their sign language… LSF. Meeting and signing with deaf and hearing people was a rich cultural experience for me! I’ve returned often and I always dreamed of guiding a group of American students to Paris… Now my dream will finally become a reality!
[image of Café Signes in Paris]
This July/August I will teach a two course Global Seminar in sign language linguistics in Paris! One course will compare signs from ASL and LSF… For example, the ASL and LSF signs for DEAF are nearly the same… The ASL and LSF signs for CULTURE, however, are actually very different… Why are some signs similar while others are different? These are very interesting subjects in linguistics we will explore!
[image of a statue of the Abbé de l’Epée]
Our 2nd course focuses on the history of ASL as a language… What other sign languages did ASL borrow from as it evolved? For example, old LSF definitely contributed to ASL… also Native American sign languages influenced ASL… as well as the sign language of African Americans, and sign languages of Mexico and Hawai’i also contributed to ASL… All of these languages have contributed to ASL!
[image of an engraved panel of the Abbé de l’Epée with some students]
You do NOT need to know a sign language to join this Global Seminar! People who know a sign language are welcome! People who do not know any sign language are equally welcome! Everyone is welcome to participate!
[Image of a white male signing I Love You with a view of Paris in the background]
We will work hard as we study together and learn much! Of course we will also enjoy and learn on excursions in and around Paris! For example, we will visit the school at rue St. Jacques where Laurent Clerc studied long ago…
[image of the courtyard and back garden of the deaf school at rue St. Jacques]
We will visit the International Visual Theatre in Paris…
[image of the front doors of IVT]
We will attend the Festival Clin d’ceil… there we will meet many deaf people, view theatre performances, see deaf art and watch films…
[images of the Clin d’ceil logo and two Deaf performers]
We’ll have lunch at the Café Signes… a restaurant owned and operated in sign language by deaf people… where we can order our coffee in sign and meet local deaf people…
[image of the Café Signes table with a tiny cup of coffee and menu]
So why am I signing today in LSF? I want to show you some LSF so you can see if you understand a little… I sign LSF but I am not a professor of LSF… My expertise is in ASL… which I have studied and taught at the university for 20 years. Are you curious about the seminar? Would you like more information? Check out the Global Seminar website… there’s a lot there to explore! Or feel free to send me an email… I’d be happy to explain more! Don’t forget that dream. Let’s go to France together this summer!
[images in a quick video montage running around Paris]
http://studyabroad.ucsd.edu/students/programs/global-seminars/paris-asl/index.html
Dr. Peggy Lott plott@ucsd.edu
LSF consultant Bruno Moncelle
Video consultant Brandon Scates
Instagram photo credits: festivalclindoeil, international visual theatre, ericlawrin, deaf tours, fred0708, christianguemy, freeaparis