Sara Lenninger
PhD in semiotics 2013, and MA in philosophy of arts at Lund University, Sweden, and Senior Lecture in Education science and Early Childhood education at Kristianstad University, Sweden. Research areas of interest include semiotic development and semiotic levels in communication.
Moreover, my focus in semiotics is on the means of conveying visual meanings in communication and especially by using pictures. My conviction is that semiotic theory, and the results of semiotic studies, are strong in the study on meaning and communication but that we also have to absorb insights about human thinking stemming from studies in psychology and cognitive studies. By studying children’s understanding of pictures in adult-child communication from a cognitive semiotic point of view, I hope we can learn more about children’s use and understanding of signs in communication beyond the verbal language. Moreover, I believe that learning more about children's communicative competencies and understanding of signs is crucial if we truly care for children’s rights to participation in their everyday encountering with adult caretakers in families, at preschool or in other social institutions.
I teach childhood education, visual semiotics and visual rhetoric. I am a current member of the board, and treasurer for the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS). Since 2018 she is also board member of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS).