
Kofi Yakpo
Kofi Yakpo is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong. He studied Linguistics, Social Anthropology and Political Science at the University of Cologne (Germany) and the University of the South Pacific (Vanuatu), Management at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), Law at King’s College London (UK), and obtained a PhD in Linguistics from Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands).
His research addresses the complex interaction of genealogical, areal, typological, social, political, and ideological forces in the evolution of contact languages. He has published extensively, spanning linguistics, politics, music, and creative writing. His works include A Grammar of Pichi (2019), the most comprehensive description of an Afro-Caribbean English-lexifier Creole to-date, Boundaries and Bridges: Language Contact in Multilingual Ecologies (2017, with Pieter Muysken), and Code-switching Between Structural and Sociolinguistic Perspectives (2015, with Gerald Stell).
Much of his teaching aims at equipping students with the methods, concepts and critical perspectives necessary for describing and documenting linguistic diversity around the world. His courses in field linguistics include trips to African and Asian countries and have become references for experiential learning at the University of Hong Kong. Kofi Yakpo was awarded a Labex EFL International Chair (2021) at the University of Paris and is the recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship (2020-21). He has also been a visiting fellow at various institutions including the University of Cambridge, the University of British Columbia, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the University of the West Indies.





