Two HCAS Core Fellows have recently secured permanent academic positions during their fellowships. Olesya Khanina has been appointed full professor in Finno-Ugric language studies at the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugric, and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Helsinki. Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine will take up a permanent research position at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), affiliated with the Nantes Linguistic Laboratory.
Both scholars work in the field of linguistics.
Olesya Khanina is a linguist whose work spans historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and the documentation and description of primarily Uralic languages in the Arctic. At the Collegium, her research contributes to reconstruction of human prehistory by developing a more general methodology that broadens the contribution of linguistics to prehistorical research. The project also enhances interdisciplinary dialogue by facilitating a methodological discussion among linguistics, archaeology, folklore studies, and anthropology.
Khanina first came to the University of Helsinki in 2018, when she joined the Collegium as a EURIAS Fellow, followed by various research posts. Before coming to the HCAS, she led an international working group, funded by the Kone Foundation, on language diversification and spread in the Siberian North. In her new role, she will be responsible for teaching, research, and the further development of the discipline at the University.
“I strive to bring Uralic languages to an even more prominent position in language studies: by building on a foundation of the strong Finnish tradition in the field and by leveraging innovative methods, international connections, and fair collaboration with the communities.”
In taking on the position, Khanina sees her work as a part of a longer continuum. While bringing new perspectives, she also emphasizes the responsibility that comes with developing the discipline:
“I am excited, and at the same time I realize that the discipline has a very long tradition in Finland. Development of the field is a challenge that shall not be taken lightly. I value the sense of community that we have in Finno-Ugric studies, and it is important for me to introduce new ideas and practices without interrupting the good old ones.”
Khanina’s fellowship at HCAS continues until August 2026, after which she will begin in her new position.
Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine is a linguist with broad interests in how human languages express meaning. His research investigates how we form sentences and map these structures onto meaning, as well as the extent and shape of variation in these strategies across the languages of the world.
At the Collegium, his project examines cross-linguistic variation in the use of question words, disjunctions, and related grammatical particles, along with the interpretative mechanisms underlying these uses and their variation. A central theme of his future work in Nantes will concern language learning and its relationship to detailed grammatical behavior.
Erlewine previously worked as a tenured Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. He will begin in his new position in early February 2026. Reflecting on the transition, he describes his time at the Collegium as an important step towards this next stage of his career:
“For me, the Collegium was an opportunity to reset as a scholar: to breathe, step back, and think about broader questions about language. Both the work and thinking I’ve been able to do, and the connections I’ve been able to build, have no doubt led to my new position in France. My fantastic experience at the Collegium makes me particularly excited about taking up this new research position and being based in Europe for the next phase of my career.”