I am Professor of Linguistics / Syntax and Language Variation at Utrecht University. My research focuses on theoretical syntax, language variation and change, and the ways in which language contact shapes grammatical systems. I am particularly interested in the syntax of minority and heritage languages, and in what linguistic variation can tell us about the architecture of grammar.
 

Much of my research has centred on Italo-Romance varieties, exploring phenomena such as differential object marking, auxiliary selection, agreement, and the expression of person. More recently, I have expanded my research to Indo-Aryan and Dravidian, as well as Chinese heritage languages, and have started developing a new research line on the syntax of honorifics. I led the ERC-funded Microcontact project, investigating syntactic change in heritage Italo-Romance languages in the Americas.

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I am Editor-in-Chief of Isogloss, a diamond open-access journal for Romance linguistics, and co-editor of Language Science Press's Open Generative Syntax series. I am also Editor-in-Chief of Brill's Grammars and Sketches of the World's Languages – Romance series. I founded the Heritage Language Syntax platform, an international research network dedicated to the syntax of heritage languages.

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I am a Fellow of the International Science Council (FISC) and a member of its Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science (CFRS). I also serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of Open Research Europe (ORE). My involvement in science policy and governance spans academic freedom, research integrity, open science, and the relationship between science and society. I co-authored the 2018 Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and have advised the European Commission through its Joint Research Centre (JRC)

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I also founded Your Academic Auntie, a free mentoring initiative for early-career researchers worldwide, complemented by a Microfund for researchers in low- and middle-income countries.

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