KIKUSAWA Ritsuko

Professor KIKUSAWA Ritsuko is a leading historical linguist specializing in Austronesian languages, particularly Fijian and Malagasy dialects. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Hawai‘i and has conducted extensive fieldwork across Oceania. Her primary affiliation is with the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, where she leads research projects integrating historical linguistics with GIS technologies and cultural studies.

Her research focuses on: 1) Morphosyntactic comparison of unwritten languages, 2) Historical development of Austronesian syntax, 3) Linguistic evidence for prehistoric human migration, and 4) Sign language linguistics. She has pioneered methods applying Geographic Information Systems to linguistic research and co-edited key publications like Modern Approaches to Transitivity.

Notable achievements include reconstructing Proto-Malagasy pronominal systems, tracing taro cultivation through linguistic evidence, and digitizing Fijian dialect materials. She currently heads initiatives like the Establishing Science for Universal Communication project and has secured grants from Japan’s National Institutes for Humanities and international crowdfunding for Pacific language documentation.