2004 - present
Full Professor (C4), African Linguistics, Head of Department, Institute of African Studies, University of Cologne

2000 - 2004
Assistant professor, Institute for African Linguistics, University of Frankfurt

1999
PhD, University of Frankfurt

1995 -1999
Research fellow at the German Research Society interdisciplinary joint research project 268 ‘Kulturentwicklung und Sprachgeschichte im Naturraum Westafrikanische Savanne’, Goethe University Frankfurt

2009 - present
Board Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture

2006 - 2009
President of the Academic Association of African Linguists in Germany (‘Fachverband Afrikanistik’)