January 2012

Together with my colleague Asifa Majid I appeared in a Dutch television documentary on the nature of language and the importance of linguistic diversity. I was interviewed about my field research in Ghana, the Language of Perception project, and ideophones. (See also MPI news item, Radboud University press release.)

Another interview at Wetenschap24.nl focuses on past and current ideas about linguistic relativity, the hypothesis that the language you speak may structure the way you think (article by Florentine Sterk).

October 2011

February 2011

I was consulted for an article on greetings cross-culturally in nrc·next and NRC Handelsblad which featured some material from my thesis. The article by Monica de Ruijter is behind a subscription paywall, but it is also covered at presseurop.

August 2010

My radio interview with Dolf Jansen on the national show Spijkers met Koppen from January was repeated as one of the highlights of the season.

February 2010 — Radio 1 Interview

I was interviewed live on the national radio science show Noorderlicht by Remy van de Brand (some 15 minutes, in 2 parts). More info here.

January 2010 — NRC Interview

Dutch national quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad ran a feature about my research in their Science section. It focuses on sound-symbolism in ideophones and also highlights my field research in Ghana on the meaning and use of ideophones in everyday social interaction. Read it here (PDF). (Article by Berthold van Maris.)

January 2010 — Radio 2 Interview

Dolf Jansen interviewed me live in the Dutch national radio show "Spijkers met Koppen", Saturday, 30th January 2010. We talked about ideophones and my field research in Ghana. Jansen is a marathon runner; fortunately, runners are catered well in Siwu, with ideophones like tsratsratsra 'light person walking fast' and kpiakpiakpia 'walking briskly like an antelope'.

March 2009 — Finalist in the AAA Photo Contest

One of my fieldwork photos made it to the finals of the 2008 American Anthropological Association photo contest (best 20 out of 300 submissions); another one made it to the semifinals (best 50). See my four submissions, and the news item in the MPI archive.

Of these photos, the judges wrote:

"The judges found your images particularly strong, commenting that they conveyed your anthropological work in a visually engaging way that demonstrated clear photographic skill."

The title of my finalist picture is simply Kããã, to honour the beauty of the Siwu language, which provides a word that evokes exactly this way of looking attentively.

July 2008 — Radio 5 Interview

While in Ghana on my third fieldtrip, I was briefly interviewed for the Radio 5 show 'Hoe?Zo! Radio' (a daily science radio show) in their 'Science Overseas' section. The interview was broadcast on July 21, 2008.