Nancy C. Kula (born 1971, Ndola, Zambia) is a linguist with a specialisation in the

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

and

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...

. She also works on

language policy Language policy is both an interdisciplinary academic field and implementation of ideas about language use. Some scholars such as Joshua Fishman and Ofelia García consider it as part of sociolinguistics. On the other hand, other scholars such as ...

and education and other issues related to

multilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

in the African context. Since 2024 she is Chair Professor of African Linguistics at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

Academic life and research

Nancy Kula earned her PhD in 2002 at Leiden University, with a dissertation entitled, ''The phonology of verbal derivation in Bemba''. (She is a native speaker of Copperbelt

Bemba Bemba may refer to: Languages and ethnic groups * Bemba language, or Chibemba, a Bantu language spoken in Zambia * Bemba people, or AbaBemba, of Zambia * Bemba, a dialect of the Buyu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo People * Jea ...

.) Following her PhD, she held

post-doc A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

positions, funded by a VENI grant ( NWO), at Leiden University (LUCL) and

SOAS The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

before joining the faculty of the Department of Language and Linguistics at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, it is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. The university comprises three camp ...

in 2007. She became a professor of linguistics at Essex in 2016 and also held a number of senior leadership roles while there. She joined the faculty of Leiden University in 2024. Since her PhD, she has continued to research the phonology and morphology of Bemba and other Bantu languages. She has made important contributions to morpho-syntactic microvariation

typology A typology is a system of classification used to organize things according to similar or dissimilar characteristics. Groups of things within a typology are known as "types". Typologies are distinct from taxonomies in that they primarily address t ...

(Marten et al. 2007; Marten & Kula 2012), to the study of

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

and the phrasal conditioning of tone in Bemba (Bickmore & Kula 2013; Kula & Bickmore 2015) and to tone-

intonation Intonation may refer to: *Intonation (linguistics), variation of speaking pitch that is not used to distinguish words *Intonation (music), a musician's realization of pitch accuracy, or the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument *Intonation Music ...

interaction in Bemba (Kula & Hamann 2017), among other topics. Besides this more theoretically oriented work, she has also (co-)led research projects focusing on multilingualism and language policy in Africa. In 2023 - 2024 she received funding from the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

for a grant entitled, Supporting Multilingualism in Practice: Resource co-creation in primary classrooms in

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. This grant built on an earlier

funded project entitled, Bringing the Outside In. She is currently (2023–2028) collaborating on an

ESRC The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundin ...

project on Multilingualism and Conflict.

Honors and distinctions

Nancy Kula is a co-editor of the ''Journal of African Languages and Linguistics'' (''JALL''). She is on the editorial board of the

Language Science Press Language Science Press (LSP) is an open access scholarly publishing house specializing in linguistics, formally set up in 2014. Language Science Press publishes books on a central storage and archiving server in combination with print on-demand ...

series, Contemporary African Linguistics.

Selected publications

* Bickmore, Lee S. & Nancy C. Kula. 2013. Ternary spreading and the OCP in Copperbelt Bemba. ''Studies in African Linguistics'' 42, 2. doi.org/10.32473/sal.v42i2.107270 * Nancy C. Kula & Lee S. Bickmore. 2015. Phrasal phonology in Copperbelt Bemba. ''Phonology'' 32(1):147-176. doi:10.1017/S095267571500007X * Kula, Nancy C. & Silke Hamann. 2017. Intonation in Bemba. In: L. J. Downing & A. Rialland (eds.) ''Intonation in African Tone Languages.'' Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter; 321–364. doi.org/10.1515/9783110503524-010 * Marten, Lutz, Nancy C. Kula & N. Thwala. 2007. Parameters of morphosyntactic variation in Bantu. ''Transactions of the Philological Society'' 105: 253–338. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-968X.2007.00190.x * Marten, Lutz & Nancy C. Kula 2012. Object marking and morphosyntactic variation in Bantu.'Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies'' 30 (2): 237–253. doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2012.737603 *Reilly, C., Costley, T., Gibson, H. and Kula, N.2024. The multilingual university: language ideology, hidden policies and language practices in Malawian universities. Language, Culture and Curriculum. 37 (2), 213-229 *Mapunda, G., Costley, T., Gibson, H., Kula, N. and Reilly, C.2024. Rethinking language: The need for language supportive pedagogy within teacher training in Tanzania. Nordic Journal of African Studies. 33 (3), 184-202

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kula, Nancy C. Academic staff of Leiden University Leiden University alumni 1971 births Academics of the University of Essex Linguists of Bantu languages Phonologists Academic journal editors Living people Women linguists Zambian women academics