Our Staff
Project Director
Ken Safir is a professor in the department of linguistics at Rutgers University, a department he helped to found in 1989, seven years after receiving his Ph.D. from MIT. He is a linguistic theorist and syntactician with interests in the syntax-semantics interface and the nature of linguistic of anaphora in particular. He has also served as editor of the Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics, of which he was also one of the founding editors. He has studied definiteness effects, the null subject parameter, crossover effects, small clauses, parasitic gaps, the structure of nominals and relative clauses and many other phenomena, but for the last 15 years much of his work has been devoted to the locality and interpretation of anaphoric relations and the connection between these relations and the morphology of anaphors, as evidenced by many of his recent publications, including The Syntax of Anaphora, published in 2004 by Oxford University Press, and The Syntax of (In)Dependence, published by MIT Press, also in 2004. In addition to new work on transitivity and reflexivity informed by his work for the Afranaph project, he is also working from a minimalist perspective on some fundamental architectural properties of the theory of syntax.
Associate Director for Afro-asiatic Languages
Ruth Kramer is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. Her research concerns syntax, morphology, and the relationship between them, including topics like gender, number, syncretisms, clitic doubling, and agreement. She conducts research almost entirely on languages from the Afroasiatic language family, with a special focus on Amharic (Ethiosemitic). She published a monograph The Morphosyntax of Gender in 2015 with Oxford University Press, and her publications have appeared in such journals as Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Linguistic Inquiry, Syntax, Language and Linguistics Compass, and The Journal of Afroasiatic Languages. She received her Ph.D. in 2009 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and she has been Associate Director of Afroasiatic Languages at Afranaph since 2012. For more information about Ruth Kramer, please see her website.
Associate Director for West African languages
Harold Torrence is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California Los Angeles. His research has centered on wh-questions, relativization, focus, and complementation. He has conducted fieldwork in Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria, in addition to ex-situ fieldwork in the USA. Torrence has worked on Atlantic languages such as Wolof and Bassari, Kwa langauges of the Ghana-Togo Mountain group and Central Tano, Lower Cross languages including Ibibio and Otomanguean and Mayan languages of Mesoamerica.
For more information about Harold Torrence, please go to his website.
Associate Director
Oluseye Adesolareceived his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 2005 and is an assistant professor at the Yale University. He designed the original website for the Afranaph projects and continues to provide oversight, outreach and support for Afranaph, and is also our consultant for Yoruba. His research interests include Yoruba Studies, Comparative Syntax, African Culture and Literature, African Linguistics, Syntactic Theory, Anaphora, Wh-movement Constructions and Focus Constructions.
Current Research Assistant
Sreekar Raghotham is a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. He is the Research Assistant for Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. He will oversee the data entry policing and the day to day administration of the website. His research interests include the morphology, syntax, and semantics of natural languages, with current research revolving around the nature of verbal reflexivity and reciprocity in some African and South Asian languages.
Database Designer
Alexis Dimitriadis obtained his M.A. degree in Mathematics from Portland State University, and the Ph.D. degree in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a senior research associate at the Utrecht institute of Linguistics OTS. He has participated in several technology-related projects, including the Berlin-Utrecht Reciprocals Survey, for which the software behind the Afranaph database was developed, and the Typological Database System. His primary research interests include the semantics and typology of reciprocals, anaphoric and pronominal reference, Greek linguistics, and Bantu linguistics.
For more information about Alexis Dimitriadis, please contact him This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Website Design
John Amodeo designed the Afranaph Website.
Former Research Assistants
Tajudeen Mamadou Yacoubou - 2020-2022 - was a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. He was appointed as a research assistant from Fall 2020 to Summer 2022. He will oversee the data entry policing, the day to day administration of the website, as well as being the co-consultant on the Baatonum case file. His research interests include interactions between tone and intonation in African languages, the Computational properties of long distance phonological processes, Phonological Theory and Fieldwork. For more information, see his website.
Hazel Mitchley - 2019-2020 - was a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. She was appointed as a research assistant for Fall 2019-Spring 2020. She will oversee the data entry policing, as well as the day to day administration of the website. Her research interests include argument structure and the verbal spine. For more information about Hazel Mitchley, see her website
Augustina Owusu - 2017-2019 - was a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. She is appointed as a research assistant for Fall 2017-Spring 2018 and Fall 2018-Spring 2019. She will oversee the data entry policing, as well as the day to day administration of the website. Her research interests include tense and aspect in Akan syntax. For more information on Augustina Owusu, see her website.
Kunio Kinjo - 2016-2017- was a graduate student in the department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. He was in charge of data entry management, the management of several cases and is overseeing new and current features for the website. His research interests the morpho-syntax of Japanese and the semantics of contrastive topic. For more information, see his website.
Ümit Atlamaz - 2015 - 2016 - was a graduate student in the department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. He was in charge of data entry management, the management of several cases and current features for the website. His research interests include agreement, case and focused questions. For more information, see his website.
Vandana Bajaj - Spring 2014 - was a graduate student in the department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. She took over in Spring 2014 and was in charge of data entry management, the management of several cases and the management of new and current features for the website. Her research interests include focus, the semantics-pragmatics interface, and experimental methods.
Atsushi Oho - Fall 2013 - was a graduate student in the department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. He was in charge of data entry management, the management of several cases and is overseeing new and current features for the website. His research interests include theoretical and experimental approaches to syntax, semantics, pragmatics and their interfaces.
Naga Selvanathan - 2012-2013 - was a graduate student in the department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. He was in charge of data entry management, the management of several cases and is overseeing new and current features for the website. His research interests include syntax and the syntax-semantics interface.
Matthew Barros - 2011-2012 - was a graduate student in the department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. He was in charge of data entry management from 2011 - 2012. He had taken over the management of several cases and oversaw new and current features for the website. His research interests include syntax and the syntax-semantics interface. For more information, please see his website.
Jeremy Perkins - 2010-2011 - Jeremy is an associate professor at the department of linguistics at the University of Aizu. He was in charge of data entry management from 2010-2011 and took over the management of several cases and new and current features for the website. His research interests include phonology and phonetics, and in particular, consonant-tone interaction.
Carlo Linares-Scarcerieau - 2008-2010 - See description above.
Michael O’Keefe - 2007-2008 - Michael was a graduate student in the department of linguistics at Rutgers University. He made important contributions to the transition between the old and new websites, developed our glossing standards and procedures for database entry, and managed several cases, particularly Ibibio. His primary research interests have been in phonology, specifically tone, stress, and learnability, and in syntax, specifically reciprocals and anaphora. For more information, please visit his website.
Sarah E. Murray - 2006-2007 - Sarah is an assistant professor in the Linguistics Department at Cornell University and is a former graduate student at Rutgers University. In addition to her role as a research assistant, she made important contributions to the development of the new database and website and continues in an advisory role. Her primary research interests are in formal semantics, focusing on evidentials, the many varieties of anaphora (modal, temporal, in discourse, etc.), and fieldwork (Cheyenne). For more information, please visit her website .
Jessica Rett - 2005-2006 - After getting her Ph.D.in linguistics from Rutgers University in 2008, Jessica became an assistant professor at UCLA. For more information, please visit her website .
Oluseye Adesola - 2004-2005 - Oluseye remains an active member of the project as associate director (as above)
Current and Former Native Speaker Linguist Consultants*
Enoch Aboh, University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Oluseye Adesola, Yale University (USA)
Derib Ado, Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia)
Pius Akumbu, University of Buea (Cameroon)
Michael Terhemen Angitso, University of Hamburg (Germany)
Rose Aziza, Delta State University (Nigeria)
Degif Petros Banksira, Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada)
Mamadou Bassene, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar (Senegal)
Paul Roger Bassong, University of Yaounde 1 (Cameroon)
Théodore Bebey, University of Maroua (Cameroon)
Edmond Biloa, University of Yaounde 1 (Cameroon)
Oumarou Boukari, University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Obed Broohm, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana)
Akua Campbell, University of Ghana (Ghana)
Noumga Djadkode, University of Ngaoundere (Cameroon)
Gabriel Djomeni, University of Dschang (Cameroon)
Noureddine Elouazizi, University of British Columbia (Canada)
Keffyalew Gebregziabher, University of Calgary (Canada)
Alex Iwara, University of Ibadan (Nigeria)
Lwaboshi Jacques Kayigema, Adventist University of Central Africa (Rwanda)
Angela Kioko, United States International University (Kenya)
Lynn Kisembe, no current affiliation information
Nancy Kula, University of Essex (United Kingdom)
David Langa, Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique)
Rose Letsholo, University of Botswana (Botswana)
Tajudeen Mamadou Yacoubou, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA)
Loyiso Mletshe, Unviersity of the Western Cape (South Africa)
Kizitus Mpoche, University of Douala (Cameroon)
Philip Ngessimo Mutaka, University of Yaounde 1 (Cameroon)
Juvenal Ndayiragije, University of Toronto (Canada)
Lengson Ngwasi, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
Ibirahim Njoya, University of Yaounde 1 (Cameroon)
Ongaye Oda Orkaydo, Dilla University (Ethiopia)
Christophe Onambélé Manga, no current affiliation information
Cyrille Ondoua Engon, University of Bertoua (Cameroon)
Augustina Owusu, Boston College (USA)
Justine Sikuku, Moi University (Kenya)
Ron Silvester Simango, Rhodes University (South Africa)
Pius Tamanji, deceased
Francis Ndi Wepngong, Leiden Univesity alumnus (Netherlands)
Willie Udo Willie, currently unaffiliated
Tamam Ahmed Youssouf, no current affiliation information
*We only include here those who have completed an AQ response or who have sent us large enough portion of the AQ response to permit follow-up work to begin. There are many other consultants currently involved in the project whose names will be added when they pass that threshold.
Former Data Entry Specialists
Tatevik Yolyan, graduate student at Rutgers University
Indira Das, graduate student at Rutgers University
Deepak Alok, Rutgers University Alum
Hazel Mitchley, Rutgers University Alum
Lydia Newkirk, Rutgers University Alum
Nicholas Winter, Rutgers University Alum
