BantUGent stands for a transdisciplinary approach to the past and present of Bantu languages, speech communities, their (im)material worlds and the languages, peoples and cultures with which they are in contact, both in Africa and the diaspora.
Our research starts from the data-driven study of language and cultural heritage and relies on methods and theoretical insights from disciplines as diverse as linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, (art) history, botany, zoology, genetics, etc.
Within Bantu linguistics, our centre of gravity, we focus on historical and comparative linguistics, language contact, language documentation and description, and corpus linguistics and lexicography.
Picture: participants of the Bantu11 conference welcomed at the city hall of Ghent, 18/8/2026.
News
- BantUGent contributes to Bantu Expansion article in the Knowable Magazine
- Koen Bostoen visits BantUGent partners SUZA, UDSM and DUCE in Tanzania.
- Koen Bostoen talks on Bantu Expansion at the University of Burundi in Bujumbura
- Heidi Goes gives talk at Kikongo conference in Versailles
- Hilde Gunnink (BantUGent) obtains a prestigious ERC Starting Grant
- Four BantUGent talks at CALL 2026 in Leiden