The UGent Centre for Bantu Studies (BantUGent) stands for a transdisciplinary approach to the past and present of Bantu languages, Bantu speech communities and their (im)material worlds, both in Africa and in the diaspora.
Our research starts from the data-driven study of language and/or (im)material culture and relies on methods and theoretical insights from disciplines as diverse as linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, (art) history, botany, zoology, genetics, etc.
Within the field of Bantu linguistics, which is BantUGent’s centre of gravity, we strongly focus on historical linguistics, including language contact, and corpus linguistics and lexicography, which we strive to combine.
Our research is also integrated in several courses of the UGent BA in African Languages and Cultures and MA in African Studies, such as Introduction to African Linguistics, Language Documentation and Description in Africa, African Historical Linguistics, Bantu Corpus Linguistics and Lexicography, Comparative Bantu Grammar, and African Archaeology.
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News
- Lis Kerr gives talk with Bernat Bardagil at Diachronic Generative Syntax workshop in Oxford
- Several BantUGent talks at the SocioBaGS workshop (June 26-28) in Aix-en-Provence
- Nina van der Vlugt talks on Shona diminutives in Gothenburg
- Lis Kerr gives talk at Göttingen Language Fieldwork workshop
- Hilde Gunnink features in the TV show “Campus Cup”
- BantUGent at Africa Platform of Ghent University Association event with Congolese personalities