Dr. Jürgen Streeck (Dr. phil. FU Berlin 1981) has been one of the pioneers in the study of multi-modal (embodied) human interaction. Employing micro-ethnographic research methods, he has shown how speakers in face-to-face interaction coordinate eye-gaze with their hand gestures and speech; use material objects to symbolize their interactional process; and conduct meta-communication by self-touch and body postures. Jürgen’s co-edited books Embodied Interaction. Language and the Body in the Material World (Cambridge 2011, with C. Goodwin and C. LeBaron) and Intercorporeality. Emerging Socialities in Interaction (Oxford 2017, with C. Meyer and S. Jordan) have helped lay the foundations of the field. His book Gesturecraft – The Manu-facture of Meaning (Amsterdam 2009) is based on 20 years of video-based research on gestures of the hand, and in Self-Making Man. A Day of Action, Life, and Language (Cambridge 2017), Jürgen examines a plethora of moments of moving, standing, looking, gesturing, speaking, and managing during one workday of the owner of a local auto-repair shop. More recently, Jürgen has developed an interest in touch, one of the least studied and understood modalities of communication, and in interactions between humans and other animals. 

Trained as a linguist, Jürgen has always maintained an interest in language diversity and evolution and the role of languages in social, cultural, and mental life. He has pursued this interest by following the development of hip hop and the playful and creative ways it makes music out of language.

Jürgen teaches four undergraduate courses: CMS 348K Visual Media and Interaction (writing flag); CMS 355s Communicating with Animals (writing and independent inquiry flag); CMS 359 Language, Culture and Communication in the Hip Hop Nation; and CMS 359T How People Talk (independent inquiry flag).