I am co-supervisor at Lund University and professor of Caucasus Studies at Malmö University, where I’m one of the initiators and co-directors of the research platform Russia, Ukraine and the Caucasus Regional Research (RUCARR). I hold a PhD in General Linguistics from Lund University with the thesis Complementation in Georgian (1989).

In my research I largely focus on different perspectives on linguistic diversity: variation in human languages (linguistic typology) and the impact of multilingualism on society and the individual – the sociolinguistic perspective. In both cases I work with data from the region in Europe with the highest linguistic diversity: the Caucasus. I have worked extensively on the Kartvelian languages (Georgian, Megrelian) and the Northwest Caucasian Circassian languages.