معرفی
Prof. Roland Kießling is a Professor of African Studies at the University of Hamburg's Faculty of Humanities, affiliated with the Asia-Africa Institute's Department of African and Ethiopian Studies. He has held visiting professorships at the Universities of Bayreuth and Cologne, and served as a DFG Heisenberg Fellow (2001–2006). His research focuses on African languages, particularly Southern Cushitic, Nilotic, Niger-Congo, and Khoisan languages, emphasizing documentation, phonetics, morphosemantics, and language change.
Academic Career:
- Studied at University of Hamburg (African Studies, Phonetics), M.A. 1988, Ph.D. 1993, Habilitation 2000
- 1990–1993: Research Associate in the DFG 'Iraqw Texts' project
- 1993–1999: Research Assistant at Hamburg's Institute for African and Ethiopian Studies
- Recipient of the Kurt-Hartwig-Siemers Prize (1995)
- Since 2006: Full Professor at University of Hamburg
Research Interests: Documentation of endangered African languages, phonetic transcription, morphosemantics, language contact, and historical linguistics. Specializes in Cushitic (Southern), Nilotic (Southern), Niger-Congo (South Bantoid), and Khoisan languages including !Xoon.
Key Projects (selection):
- Cluster of Excellence 'Understanding Written Artefacts' (2019–2025)
- DFG SFB 950 'Manuscript Cultures' (2011–2020), leading subproject C07 on Arabo-Swahili manuscripts
- DoBeS-funded documentation projects for Bezen (2011–2015) and Datooga motion lexico-grammar (2018–2022)
Publications: Over 59 publications including monographs on Isu (West Ring Bantu), edited volumes on African linguistics, and articles in Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, Afrika und Übersee, and others. Recent work explores numeral classifiers, hybrid youth discourse, and tonogenesis.
Awards: Kurt-Hartwig-Siemers Prize (1995), Heisenberg Fellowship (2001–2006), and contributions to major linguistic reference works like The Oxford Handbook of African Languages.
