Cross-disciplinary approaches to Information Structure in Niger-Congo languages

Akinbiyi Akinlabi is a Professor of Linguistics at Rutgers University, and a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (FNAL). His interests are in phonological theory and linguistic fieldwork. His research is primarily on Benue-Congo languages, especially on tone and vowel harmony, based on primary data collection. He has taught at Rutgers University since 1989, where he was Department Chair from 1998-2001. In 2015–2016, he was a Fulbright Professor at Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Côte d'Ivoire. He co-founded the African Linguistics School in 2008. He served as WOCAL President from 2009-2015; and as ACAL President from 2017-2021.

Sampson Korsah is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Ghanaian Languages and Linguistics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. His research broadly focuses on theoretical issues in the syntax and morphology of Kwa (Niger-Congo) languages of West Africa, especially Gã and Akan (both spoken in southern Ghana). He has worked on a range of topics, including pronouns, clausal determiners, marking definiteness, polarity, and inherent complement verbs, among others.

Sharon Rose is Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of California San Diego. Her research investigates the phonology of African languages, and its interaction with phonetics, morphology and syntax. She has researched long distance consonant and vowel harmony, dissimilation, tone, and intonation. She is currently working on Moro, Tira and Rere, three Heiban languages of Sudan.

Abdul-Razak Sulemana is a Lecturer in the Linguistics Department at the University of Ghana, Legon. His research interests include syntactic theory, syntax of African languages and its interface with phonology and semantics. He has researched on non-finite complementation, passive constructions, A-bar constructions, tone processes, temporal markers, and structure of the determiner phrase. He is currently working on nominalizations and indefinite DPs in Buli, a Mabia language of Ghana.