Theodoros Marinis, Tom Loucas, Fiona Knott, Bhismadev Chakrabarti, Fang Liu, Teresa Tavassoli, Sara Fincham-Majumdar, Mada Al Hassan

Theodoros Marinis <https://www.ling.uni-konstanz.de/en/tt8ftuxr56xq3ybzwr/general-linguistics-and-multilingualism/> is Professor of Linguistics with focus on Multilingualism at the Department of Linguistics, University of Konstanz and at the Department School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading. Marinis and his team have conducted extensive research on developmental language disorders, including Developmental Language Disorders/Specific Language Impairment and Autism focusing on differences between comprehension and production as well as the way children process language in real-time. The Autism research focuses on the relationship between language and cognition in bilingual children, as well as children with SLI/DLD and high-functioning children with ASD, addressing the relationship between language and cognition on the interpretation phenomena that are at the interface of morpho-syntax with discourse information, such as pronouns, passives and relative clauses. His research on ASD has largely been conducted in collaboration with Prof Arhonto Terzi at the Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece. He is currently supervising Mada Al Hassan on her PhD addressing language development in bilingual children with ASD in Saudi Arabia.

Marinis has attracted funding from research councils in the UK and the Netherlands, along with funding from charities (Nuffield Foundation, Latsis Foundation, Onassis Foundation, and several grants from the British Academy and the Goldsmith’s College in collaboration with colleagues from UCL, Reading, and Goldsmith’s College. From 2009-2013 he led the Working Group Syntax and its interface with morphology and semantics on the EU funded COST-action “Language Impairment in a Multilingual Society: Linguistic patterns and the road to assessment”. He currently coordinates the EU finded Marie-Curie ITN project “The Multilingual Mind” www.multilingualmind.eu that trains 15 Earlt Stage Researchers across Europe and in Malaysia. He is also part of the ESRC-DFID project “Multilingualism & Multiliteracy” https://www.mam.mml.cam.ac.uk/ and the DFG project “Questions at the Interfaces” https://typo.uni-konstanz.de/questionsInterfaces/index.php/p10-description/. Marinis has published extensively in journals focusing on linguistics (e.g., Lingua), language acquisition (e.g., Journal of Child Language, Language Acquisition, Applied Psycholinguistics), second language acquisition (e.g., Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Second Language Research), as well as neuroscience journals (e.g., Cerebellum).

The University of Konstanz has a strong team on linguistics and multilingualism. The University of Reading has a strong team conducting research on autism and the Centre for Autism (https://www.reading.ac.uk/autism/) that provides autism diagnostic services and interventions, as well as tailored training and consultation for various organisations. Research at the Centre for Autism uses a range of neuroscience techniques to examine core features of autism and to support the development of clinical interventions.  All work is disseminated widely to the public as well as to a network for health and education professionals, through regular lectures, workshops and special interest group meetings. The team at the Centre for Autism includes Tom Loucas and Fiona Knott, Directors of the Centre for Autism, Bhismadev Chakrabarti, Research Director of the Centre, Fang Liu and Teresa Tavassoli, international leading expert on autism, and Sara Fincham-Majumdar, a speech & language therapists specialising on individuals with ASD.