University of Hamburg

Post-Doc, Afrikanistik und Äthiopistik

Postdoc DoBeS-Volkswagenstiftung

About

Native Sicilian, I am a linguist specialised on minority and endangered languages of Ethiopia. In have been working on data collected by myself in remote areas of Southwest Ethiopia. My scientific work is heavily depended on the use of computer tools and the cooperation with informants, institutions and colleagues.
My formation in this field started in 1992 at the University of Naples "l'Orientale" in Italy, where I got a degree in Oriental Languages and Civilisation-Africa stream. Leiden University is the institution where I obtained a Advanced Master's Diploma and I did my PhD. The result of the doctoral research is a Grammar of Ts'amakko, a Cushitic endangered language with 9000 speakers found in Southwest Ethiopia.
I did three postdocs, one at "l'Orientale", one financed by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Documentation Project" and one financed by the City of Paris and hosted by the CNRS laboratory LLACAN (Language, Langues et Cultures d'Afrique Noire). The first postdoc was on the edition and revision of the first grammar of Dizi, an Omotic language of Southwest Ethiopia. The second and third one focussed on the documentation and description of Ongota. This is one of the most endangered language in Africa and the world with only twelve speakers. I have also been involved in a project for the creation of oral corpora in Afroasiatic languages financed by the French ANR and I am writing an Amharic-Italian dictionary for Vallardi. I am also interested in language typology, classification, language contact, sociolinguistics, language policy and linguistic fieldwork methodology.
For two year I have been shortlisted in the selection for a permanent research position (Chargé de Recherche) at CNRS in France. I will apply again (unitl I get it...). I am currently a Postdoctoral fellow at DOBES-Volkswagenstiftung, for the documentation of the endangered languages Bayso and Haro. The contract is based at Hamburg University and the project is developped in collaboration with the LLACAN, that keeps on being my working base in Paris.

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