Umberto Ansaldo, Prof.
College of Arts and Sciences
Dean
Biography
Professor Ansaldo’s disciplinary roots line in linguistics, more specifically in the study of language contact, linguistic typology, and language documentation. He is the author of four books to date (with CUP, OUP, Routledge and Stockholm University Press), has edited or co-edited a further 11 volumes and journal special collections, and has authored multiple journal articles and book chapters.
In the last 15 years, Prof Ansaldo has been engaged in leadership in institutions across Asia and Australia. At the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Umberto led the Humanities Area of Inquiry on the Common Core Curriculum Committee, in HKU’s major revision of its curriculum (2010-2013), a time when, along with the University of Melbourne, HKU was pioneering the reimagining of undergraduate curricula. As Chair of Linguistics, he was instrumental in establishing the Department in the top ten programs in Linguistics worldwide (QS rankings). In Australia, Umberto led two large HASS Schools at The University of Sydney and Curtin, covering capital projects, research strategy, curriculum development and innovation, fundraising and professional development.
Umberto has throughout his career been successful in securing competitive research grants and leveraging industry funding for the advancement of the humanities and social sciences. One of his proudest achievements was his role in securing financial support to develop and host an exhibition on language and brain, the Talking Brains exhibition that launched successfully at the Cosmo Caixa (Barcelona Science Museum) in 2017.
• Linguistics
• Asian languages and cultures
• Diversity and endangerement
• Peace education
• Psychology of conflict
• As in Research interests above
• Krav Maga
1. Ansaldo, U. and P.Y. Szeto, eds. 2023. Typology of Chinese Languages. Special Issue, Languages.
2. Ansaldo, U. and M. Meyerhoff, eds. 2021. The Routledge Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Languages. Routledge.
3. Fleming, K. and U. Ansaldo. 2020. Revivals, Nationalism, and Linguistic Discrimination: Threatening Languages. Routledge.
4. Szeto, P.Y., J.Y.K. Lai and U. Ansaldo. 2019. Creole typology is analytic typology. Language Ecology 3(1): 89-119. doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/le.17003.sze
5. Ansaldo, U. 2018. The evolution of linguistic theory and the new ‘core’. Physics of Life Reviews 26-27: 18-159. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2018.06.008
6. Ansaldo, U. and E.O. Aboh, eds. 2018. Languages as Adaptive Systems. Frontiers in Psychology. Nature Group.
7. Szeto, P.Y., U. Ansaldo and S. Matthews. 2018. Typological variation across Mandarin dialects: An areal perspective with a quantitative approach. Linguistic Typology 22(2): 233-276. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2018-0009
8. Ansaldo, U. 2017. Creole complexity in sociolinguistic perspective. Language Sciences 60: 26-35.
9. Ansaldo, U., J. Lai, F. Jia, W.T. Siok, L.H. Tan and S. Matthews. 2015. Neural basis for processing hidden complexity as indexed by small and finite clauses in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Neurolinguistics 33: 118-127.
10. Ansaldo, U. and N.J. Enfield, eds. 2016. Is the Language Faculty Non-Linguistic? Frontiers in Psychology. Nature Group.
11. Lim, L. and U. Ansaldo. 2016. Languages in Contact. Key Topics in Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press.
12. Ansaldo, U. ed. 2012. Pidgins and Creoles in Asia. Benjamins Current Topics 38. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
13. Ansaldo, U. 2009. Contact Languages: Ecology and Evolution in Asia. Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact. Cambridge University Press.
