Alexandru Nicolae - Biography#

Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Bucharest
Senior Researcher, “Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” Institute of Linguistics, Romanian Academy

Academic Profile and Scholarly Impact

Alexandru Nicolae is an internationally recognised specialist in comparative and diachronic Romance syntax, whose work has significantly advanced the study of microvariation, parametric change, and Balkan–Romance grammatical interfaces, with Romanian serving as a key empirical domain for syntactic theory.

A defining contribution of his profile is his series of single-authored monographs, culminating in the Oxford University Press volume: Word Order and Parameter Change in Romanian. A Comparative Romance Perspective (OUP 2019), recipient of the University of Bucharest Senate Award for Author of the Year and widely regarded as a reference work in Eastern Romance syntax and diachronic parameter theory. His other major single-authored books include The Licensing of Nominal and Verbal Ellipsis in Romanian (2019) and Ordinea constituenţilor în limba română (2015), consolidating his position as a leading scholar in generative diachronic syntax.

He is also a core contributor to major international reference works published by Oxford University Press, including The Grammar of Romanian, The Syntax of Old Romanian, The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages, which have significantly increased the visibility of Romanian linguistics in European and global research agendas.

International Visibility and Research Leadership

Dr Nicolae has held prestigious visiting appointments at MIT (Visiting Scholar, 2016), Oxford, Utrecht, and Cambridge, reflecting sustained international recognition. He has served as Principal Investigator of competitive grants, including the UEFISCDI PCE project Contrasting contexts of language contact in synchrony and diachrony (2021–2024), addressing contact-induced grammatical change in Romanian.

Scientific Service, Outreach, and Societal Impact

He is Associate Editor-in-Chief of Isogloss and serves on editorial boards including the Journal of Historical Syntax. He is a two-term elected member of the Executive Committee of Societas Linguistica Europaea (2022–2028).

In addition to his academic service, he is actively engaged in science communication and outreach, serving as a regular co-chair of the SLE panel Communicating Linguistics Research, promoting public visibility and interdisciplinary dissemination of linguistic scholarship.

He has also contributed to Romanian national education policy, participating in the design of the high-school curriculum framework, thereby supporting the integration of contemporary linguistic knowledge into secondary education.

Academic Leadership

He is currently Academic Head of Bucharest University Press and Vice-Dean for Research and International Relations at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest.

Important Fellowships

• 2016 (February - August) Visiting Scholar; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
• 2015 (April - August) Visiting Scholar, University of Cambridge, Department of Italian and Romance Linguistics, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages
• 2022 - 2028 Member of the Executive Committee, Societas Linguistica Europaea

Administrative Service

• 2021 (August) - present Academic Head of Bucharest University Press
• 2024 (February) - present Vice-dean of the Faculty of Letters, University of Letters (portfolio: research management, international relations)