Stephen Levinson

Stephen Levinson is a Professor of Comparative Linguistics at Radboud University Nijmegen (since 1995) and has served as Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics since 1994. Previously, he was a Reader at the University of Cambridge's Department of Linguistics until 1994 and held leadership roles in Max Planck Research Groups in Berlin and Nijmegen.

• University of Cambridge (BA Social Anthropology, 1967-70)
• University of California, Berkeley (MA 1973, Doctorate 1977)

His research focuses on interactional sociolinguistics, linguistic pragmatics, cognitive anthropology, and the relationship between spatial language and cognition. He has pioneered cross-linguistic studies on how language shapes cognitive processes.

Levinson has received numerous accolades including the Stirling Prize (1992), Hale Professorship (2009), and fellowships from the British Academy and Academia Europaea. He has held visiting positions at Stanford and Australian National University.