Present positions
| Since August 2019 | Researcher (DFG Heisenberg position), Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin |
| Since March 2019 | Principal Investigator, DoReCo project (DFG-ANR) |
| Since February 2018 | Chargé de recherche, CNRS, laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage, Lyon (on leave since August 2019) |
| Since Dec. 2020 | Privatdozent, Linguistics, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin |
Previous positions
| Dec. 2018 – Dec. 2020 | Privatdozent, Universität zu Köln |
| July 2015 – Dec. 2018 | Principal Investigator “Articulation speed variation cross-linguistically”, Universität zu Köln |
| Feb. 2014 – Jan. 2018 | Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam |
| Aug. 2009 – June 2015 | Senior Researcher, Department of Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig |
| August 2009 | Faculty member, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute. Class taught: Nominal classification |
| Oct. 2007 – July 2009 | Wissenschaftlicher Assistent, Universität Regensburg |
| Sep. 2004 – July 2009 | Principal Investigator “Documenting the languages of the People of the Centre, especially Bora and Ocaina (North West Amazon)” (until Sep. 2007 as Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) |
Degrees and university education
| Dec. 2016 | Habilitation (postdoctoral lecture qualification), University of Cologne. Thesis title: “Affix borrowing: Processes and Patterns” (cumulative thesis consisting of seven publications and a framework paper) |
| Feb. 2001 – Oct. 2005 | Ph.D. in linguistics, cum laude, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. Thesis title: “The Structure and Use of Shape-Based Noun Classes in Miraña (North West Amazon)”, supervised by S. C. Levinson, N. Himmelmann and N. J. Enfield. Ph.D. research at the Language and Cognition group at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics |
| Feb. 1999 – Jan. 2001 | M.A. in Etnolingüística, Centro Colombiano de Estudios de Lenguas Aborígenes (CCELA), Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. Thesis title: “El sistema de clasificación nominal del miraña [The System of Nominal Classification of Miraña]”, supervised by J. Landaburu |
| Oct. 1992 – Jan. 1999 | M.A. in General Linguistics, Freie Universität Berlin. Major: German and General Linguistics. Minors: Spanish, sociology. Additional studies in German literature, psychology, anthropology. Thesis title: “Grundfragen bei der Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen [Fundamental Issues in the Documentation of Endangered Languages]”, supervised by H. H. Lieb |
| Sep. 1996 – May 1997 | Studies in General linguistics, experimental phonetics, Spanish literature and Catalan language at the Universitat de Barcelona |
Further certificates obtained and training
| Dec. 2015 | University teaching qualification (Basiskwalificatie onderwijs – BKO) |
| Aug. 2009 | LSA Linguistic Institute, University of California, Berkeley |
| Dec. 2008 | Media training for scientists, Klaus Tschira Stiftung, Heidelberg |
| Nov. 2008 | Two-day workshop “Scientific Cooperation with Developing Countries”, Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung, Bonn |
| July 2001 | LSA Linguistic Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara |
Awards and grants
| May 2017 | Lecturer of the Year prize for BA Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam |
| Dec. 2005 | Mary R. Haas Award, presented by the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) for a manuscript from a younger scholar that makes a significant substantive contribution to the knowledge of American Indian languages |
| Mar. 2001 – Feb. 2004 | Ph.D. stipend of the Max Planck Gesellschaft |
| Feb. 1999 – Jan. 2001 | Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) stipend for graduate students |
| Sep. 1996 – Jun. 1997 | Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) stipend for undergraduate students of Romance Studies |
Fieldwork
| Since July 2003 | Fieldwork on Bora (Boran) and Resígaro (Arawakan) in Northern Peru, supervision of fieldwork on Witoto and Ocaina (Witotoan) (total of 10 months) |
| Mar. 1999 – Oct. 2002 | Fieldwork on Miraña (Boran) in Southern Colombia (total of 10 months) |
| Feb. – April 1998 | Various short field trips to indigenous communities in Colombia: Wiwa, Chimila (Chibchan), Cocama (Tupian) as visiting researcher at the CCELA, Bogotá |
Membership in professional associations
Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT)
Linguistic Society of America (LSA)
Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS)
Gesellschaft für Bedrohte Sprachen (GBS) (vice president)
Dissertation committees
| May 2019 | Luis Miguel Rojas Berscia (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen), Ph.D. thesis “From Kawapanan tu Shawi. Topics in language variation and change” |
| March 2018 | Bien DoBui (Université Paris-Sorbonne), PhD. thesis “Grammaire de l’amuzgo de Xochistlahuaca, langue otomangue orientale. Documentation d’une variété amuzgoane de «langue en danger»” |
| Sept. 2017 | Helder Perri Ferreira (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen), Ph.D. thesis “Yanomama Clause Structure” |
| June 2017 | Marlou van Rijn (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Ph.D. thesis “The expression of modifiers and arguments in the noun phrase and beyond. A typological study” |
| Dec. 2016 | Matthias Passer (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Ph.D. thesis “The Noun Phrase in the Languages of South America” |
| Sep. 2016 | Ewelina Wnuk (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen), Ph.D. thesis “Semantic specificity of perception verbs in Maniq” |
| June 2016 | Femmy Admiraal (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Ph.D. thesis “A grammar of space in Baure: A study on the linguistic encoding of spatial reference” |
| April 2014 | Joshua Birchall (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen), Ph.D. thesis “Argument marking patterns in South American languages” |
| Sept. 2013 | Doris Fagua (Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7), committee member and pré–rapporteur for Ph.D. thesis “Aspects morphosyntaxiques de l’ocaina” |
| Sept. 2013 | Ergin Öpengin (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3), Ph.D. thesis “Clitic/affix interactions. A corpus-based study of person marking in the Mukri variety of Central Kurdish” |
| Sept. 2012 | Marine Vuillermet (Université Lumière Lyon 2), Ph.D. thesis “A grammar of Ese Ejja” |
| July 2012 | Olga Krasnoukhova (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen), Ph.D. thesis “The Noun Phrase in the Languages of South America” |
| June 2010 | Helder Pereira (CIESAS, Mexico), M.A. thesis “Los Clasificadores Nominales del Yanomama de Papiu (Brazil)” |
Thesis supervision
| 2011-2016 | Katherine Bolaños (MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, and Universiteit van Amsterdam): Day-to-day supervision of Ph.D. thesis “A grammar of Kakua” (defended October 2016) |
| 2014 | Eline Visser (Universiteit van Amsterdam): Day-to-day supervision of M.A. thesis “Evidentiality that also expresses tense: A typological study” |
| 2017 | Annemijn von Holtz (Universiteit van Amsterdam). B.A. thesis “Universele klank-betekenisassociaties binnen kleurterminologie” |
| 2017 | Bart Nijsten (Universiteit van Amsterdam). B.A. thesis “Additieve en/of alternatieve coördinatie constructies: een onderzoek naar de typologische claims van mental logic theory” |
| 2014 | Simone Mooi (Universiteit van Amsterdam): Day-to-day supervision of B.A. thesis “Plantation creoles vs. trade pidgins: The effect of social inequality on language structure” |
| 2014 | Redmer Kronemeijer (Universiteit van Amsterdam): Day-to-day supervision of B.A. thesis “Optionele getalsmarkering in Cochabamba-Quechua; een corpusgebaseerd onderzoek” |
Conferences, symposia, and workshops organized
| Aug. 2016 | Scientific committee member, European Summer School in Linguistic Typology 2016 (TypoLing2016), Porquerolles, Hyères, September 4-17. |
| Aug. 2013 | Co-chair of the local organizing committee of the Association for Linguistic Typology 10th Biennial Conference (ALT 10), Leipzig, August 12-13. |
| Aug. 2013 | Organization of the international workshop “The relative frequencies of nouns, pronouns, and verbs in discourse”, Leipzig, August 12-13. |
| July 2012 | Organization of the symposium “Arawakan linguistic and cultural identities” at the 54th International Congress of Americanists (ICA), Vienna, July 15-20. (with Françoise Rose) |
| Nov. 2011 | Organization of the conference “Potentials of Language Documentation: Methods, Analyses, and Utilization”, Leipzig, November 3-4. |
| April 2010 | Organization of the symposium “Valency increasing strategies in Arawakan languages” at the international conference Amazónicas III: Phonology and Syntax, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, April 19-24. (with Françoise Rose and Lev Michael) |
| Oct. 2007 -July 2009 | Organization of the lecture series “LiFo – Linguistisches Forum” at the Universität Regensburg (with Alexander Kalkhoff and Roland Meyer) |
| Nov. 2006 | Organization of the annual meeting of the Gesellschaft für Bedrohte Sprachen (GBS) at the Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS), Berlin, November 18. |
| May 2006 | Organization of the workshop “Taller de lenguas amazónicas y otras”, Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage, CNRS & Université Lyon 2, Institut des Sciences de l’Homme, Mai 12-13 (with Antoine Guillaume) |
| July 2003 | Organization of the symposium “Las lenguas y culturas del Caquetá-Putumayo” at the 51st International Congress of Americanists, Santiago de Chile, July 14-18. (with Juan Alvaro Echeverri and Dimitri Karadimas) |
| Sept. 2002 – March 2004 | Organization of a lecture series for Ph.D. students at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen (with Pamela Perniss) |
Publication reviews
| 2010, 2013 | Member of the Scientific Committees of the 43rd and 46th Annual Meetings of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (44 abstracts reviewed) |
| Since 2008 | Member of the editorial board of Brill’s Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (one book manuscript reviewed) |
| Since 2006 | Ad-hoc reviewer for Linguistic Typology, Linguistics, Studies in Language, Diachronica, International Journal of American Linguistics, Language Documentation & Conservation, Glossa |
Academic service
| since Sep. 2015 | Studiebegeleider [study counselor], BA Linguistics, University of Amsterdam |
| Feb.-Aug. 2014, since Sep. 2016 | Member (Feb.-Aug. 2014) and director (since Sep. 2016) of the Opleidingscommissie [Board of Studies] for BA Linguistics, University of Amsterdam |
| Since Oct. 2012 | Member of the Ethics Committee of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (ten proposals reviewed) |
| Aug. 2009 -Aug. 2012 | Responsible for the acquisition of linguistics books for the library of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig |
| Since June 2006 | Member of the Steering Committee of the DOBES (language documentation) program of the Volkswagen Foundation |
| Since Nov. 2005 | Coordination of application and selection procedures for stipends of the Gesellschaft für Bedrohte Sprachen (GBS) |
Languages
| German | native |
| English | fluent |
| Spanish | fluent |
| Dutch | nearly fluent |
| Bora, Resígaro | working knowledge |
| French, Portuguese | reading knowledge |