معرفی
Dr. Jakob Lesage is a Lecturer in African linguistics and Research Associate at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin, within the Faculty of Cultural, Social and Educational Sciences. His work focuses on documenting endangered African languages, particularly Kam, a Niger-Congo language spoken in Central-Eastern Nigeria.
Dr. Lesage specializes in:
- Language documentation of endangered African languages
- Remote collaboration methods for language documentation
- Linguistic typology through projects like Grambank
- Historical linguistics of African languages
- Community-driven ethnographic documentation
His research on Kam emphasizes natural interaction and community-driven approaches. He also researches remote collaboration methods for language documentation, which makes language documentation less dependent on travel and has potential to create more equitable partnerships in African linguistics. Dr. Lesage contributes to linguistic typology through his work on typological databases like Grambank, highlighting gaps in grammatical descriptions.
Dr. Lesage has received funding from the Endangered Languages Documentation Program (ELDP) for his Kam documentation project and was nominated for a prize for excellent teaching at the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences in 2024. His PhD project was funded by the City of Paris as part of the AdaGram project.
As Student Advisor for the African Studies department, Dr. Lesage supervises BA and MA theses focused on African languages. He is currently supervising Olga Olina's PhD project "Jirim Voices: Documentation and Description of Jirim Language and Traditions," an ELDP-funded project.
Dr. Lesage leads the Kam Documentation Project, which involves community members in Nigeria in documenting their language through training in computer use, filming, metadata, and transcription. He has developed innovative approaches to remote fieldwork, particularly important during the pandemic.
