Projects

Multiresearcher project

• CongUbangi (ERC-SG, 2024-2028)
• Oral Literature for Development’ (OL4D) (VLIR-UOS, 2022-2027)
• The Past and Present of Bantu Languages: Integrating Micro-Typology, Historical-Comparative Linguistics and Lexicography (FWO-JSPS, 2021 – 2023)
• BantuFirst (ERC-CG, 2018 – 2023, project website)
• Reconstructing proto-Bantu grammar (International conference, 2018)
• CongoConnect: Connections/Collections: power objects and institutions in Northeast Congo (1800-1960) (BELSPO, 2015 – 2019)
• KongoKing (ERC-SG, 2012 – 2016, project website)
• Documentation of cultural heritage in three endangered Bantu languages of the Kwilu (DR Congo). Ngong, Nsong and Nsambaan (DoBeS-Volkswagenstiftung, 2012 – 2015, project website)

Postdoctoral research

• Modelling Bantu Analytic Morphosyntax (MBAM): The Mbam languages as a case study in morphosyntactic change (FWO, 2024-2027)
• Labial-velars, implosives, and other sound rarities between Congo and Ubangi. A pioneering phonetic, aerodynamic, and articulatory approach (BOF, 2024-2027)
• Language contact and linguistic reconstruction. (Pre)historic Bantu-Khoisan interactions in Southern Africa in a historical linguistic perspective (FWO, 2020 – 2025)
• A diachronic phonological and morphological approach to the classification of Teke languages within West-Coastal Bantu (FWO, 2020 – 2023)
• Directionality in morphosyntactic change: West-Coastal Bantu as a historical test case for linguistic theory (FWO, 2020 – 2023)
• Language contact between migrating Bantu speakers and resident Khoisan speakers in southern Africa (FWO, 2018 – 2021)
• A typology of the passive voice in Bantu (BOF-UGent, 2018 – 2020)
• Duplication processes in Lusoga morphosyntax (BOF-UGent, 2018 – 2021)

PhD research

• Documenting the Bantu languages of the last hunter-gatherer communities of the Mai-Ndombe and Lower Kasai regions (DRC). A pioneering phonetic and laboratory phonological study (FWO, 2020 – 2024)
• Specialized digital frame-based lexicography from the perspective of dictionary use research (CAPES-Brazil, 2019 – 2022)
• Reconstructing the subsistence strategies of the first Bantu speakers south of the Central-African rainforest. A historical-linguistic approach to plant and animal names in West-Coastal Bantu (BantuFirst ERC-CG, 2018 – 2022)
• Description of Kibindji, a Bantu language of the Kuba-Bushong (C80) group (W-Kasaï, DRC) (self-financed, 2014 – 2021)
• Motion verbs in Kirundi (Bantu, JD62) (National Research Foundation Burundi, 2014 – 2018)
• Bantu verbal derivation and tense/aspect from a historical-comparative perspective. The Kikongo language cluster and beyond (FWO, 2014 – 2018)
• A diachronic and spatial analytical approach to linguistic micro-variation in the Kikongo dialect continuum (BOF-UGent, 2014 – 2021)
• A corpus-driven study of the expression of modality in Luganda (Bantu, JE15) (BOF-UGent, 2013 – 2017)
• The Inkisi basin at the time of the Kongo kingdom. Confrontation of historical, archaeological and linguistic data (KongoKing ERC-SG, 2012 – 2017)
• Production and circulation of contemporary pottery in the Kongo area (KongoKing ERC-SG, 2012 – 2021)
• A grammar of Fwe. A Bantu language spoken in Zambia and Namibia (UGent-FLW, 2012 – 2018)
• Prosody, syntax and information structure in Kirundi (Bantu, JD62) (National Research Foundation Burundi, 2011 – 2016)
• African theatre and its characteristics. Analysis of some definitional criteria through Kikongophone urban theatre (Belgian Development Agency, 2010 – 2014)
• A corpus-based grammar of Lusoga (BOF-UGent, 2010 – 2016)
• Bantu languages of North-Western DR Congo. Documentation, reconstruction, classifications and contacts with Ubangi languages (Xenophilia-ULB, 2010 – 2015)
• The expression of modality in Kirundi. A corpus-based approach (National Research Foundation Burundi, 2009 – 2014)