Åshild Næss is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Oslo, specializing in Oceanic languages and linguistic typology. Her research centers on transitivity, argument structure, and language documentation in the southwest Pacific, particularly focusing on the Reef Islands of Solomon Islands. Her educational background includes a PhD (cum laude) in linguistics from Radboud University Nijmegen and an MA in linguistics from the University of Oslo. Previous academic appointments encompass postdoctoral positions at the University of Oslo (Identity Matters project) and Radboud University (Breaking the Time Barrier project), editorial work on the Norwegian Dictionary Project, Visiting Professorship at the University of Zürich, and Senior Lecturer position at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Professor Næss's core research integrates fieldwork-based documentation of endangered Pacific languages with theoretical typological analysis . She investigates how grammatical relations like transitivity and voice manifest across Oceanic languages, examining both synchronic structures and diachronic changes. Her work bridges cognitive linguistics , historical linguistics , and language contact phenomena to reconstruct Pacific settlement histories through linguistic evidence, with particular focus on Äiwoo and related Temotu Province languages. Analysis of her publication record reveals a consistent trajectory from descriptive grammar (e.g., Vaeakau-Taumako grammar, Äiwoo dictionary) toward typological and cognitive investigations of grammatical relations. Recent work increasingly incorporates experimental methods, as seen in her 2023 Cognitive Science paper on sentence processing, while maintaining strong fieldwork foundations. Her research demonstrates how Austronesian languages serve as critical test cases for universal theories of transitivity and grammaticalization. She serves as Principal Investigator for a Research Council of Norway-funded project conducted with the Australian National University, investigating functional underpinnings of transitivity in Austronesian languages. This major grant supports her ongoing fieldwork and typological comparisons across the Pacific. Professor Næss actively collaborates within international research networks as a member of the Evolution of Semantic Systems Research consortium and through the University of Zürich project on ergativity processing. She teaches advanced courses including Language Typology (LING2113), Structure of Lesser-Known Languages (LING2114), and Language Endangerment (LING4170), training next-generation linguists in documentation methodologies and typological analysis.