Matteo DE CHIARA

Matteo DE CHIARA is a Professor at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INaLCO) in Paris, where he serves as Deputy Director of CeRMI (Centre de Recherches Moyen-Orient et Méditerranée). His expertise centers on Pashto language and Iranian philology within the broader field of Oriental studies.

His research interests focus on:

• Historical phonetics and lexicology of Pashto
• Comparative philology of Iranian languages
• Lexical isoglosses of the Indo-Iranian contact area
• Folk tales from the Iranian cultural sphere
• Toponymy of Iranian languages, particularly the Swat Valley region

Professor DE CHIARA currently leads the ANR PLIC project (Pashto Literature between Identity and Contact), a major 60-month research initiative running from October 2023 to September 2028. His teaching portfolio includes Pashto Masters courses, Pashto Literature, Translation Thesis supervision, Linguistics and Dialectology of Pashto, and Theoretical Linguistics of "Oriental" Iranian Languages.

His academic credentials include:

• Habilitation to supervise research (2018, INaLCO)
• Doctorate in Iranian Philology (2008, University of Naples "L'Orientale")
• Master of Arts in linguistics and Sanskrit (2001, University of Rome "La Sapienza")

He maintains significant administrative roles:

• Member of the Labex-Fondements Empiriques de la Linguistique
• Member of the Editorial Group of Iran & the Caucasus journal
• Member of INaLCO's Press and Scientific Councils
• Editor of Cahiers de Studia Iranica collection
• Co-director of the "Culture Religioni Tradizioni" collection