Team

Principal Investigator

Prof. Dr. Olga Timofeeva

I am professor of English historical linguistics at the University of Zurich and the principal investigator of the SNSF-funded project Waxing and Waning Words: Lexical Variation and Change in Middle English (WAW-ME). My early specialisation was in Old English syntax. I have since published on a range of subjects, including Old and Middle English lexis, language contact and second language acquisition in the Middle Ages, historical sociopragmatics, and the evolution of legal register in early English. I am the author of Non-finite Constructions in Old English (Société Néophilologique de Helsinki, 2010) and Sociolinguistic Variation in Old English: Records of Communities and People (Benjamins, 2022). https://www.es.uzh.ch/en/aboutus/team/otimofeeva.html 

Co-investigator

Dr. Annina Seiler

I am Wisschenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin at the English Department of the University of Zurich and co-investigator of the WAW-ME project. My research extends to various areas of English historical linguistics, including historical lexicography, lexicology and semantics, historical graphemics, medieval glosses and glossaries, as well as historical multilingualism. I have recently co-edited the handbook Medieval Glossaries from North-Western Europe: Tradition and Innovation (Brepols 2023; with Chiara Benati and Sara Pons-Sanz) and the volume Old English in Switzerland: Manuscripts, Texts and Libraries (Schwabe Verlag, forthcoming; with Nicole Studer-Joho). In the WAW-ME project, I primarily focus on the lexical field of education. This topic has close ties to a second collaborative research project in which I am engaged with Dr Heather Pagan (University of Westminster) and Dr. Christine Wallis (University of Sheffield). This project focuses on the multilingual glosses in John of Garland’s Dictionarius and medieval language learning.
https://www.es.uzh.ch/en/aboutus/team/anninaseiler.html
https://blog.westminster.ac.uk/jog/

Senior postdoctoral researcher

Dr. Johanna Vogelsanger

I completed my PhD at the University of Zurich in December 2024. My thesis, entitled “Lexical Loss, Survival, and Innovation in Middle English” (ORCiD), examined lexical change during the Middle English period, with a particular interest in the issue of obsolescence and loss, how to measure it, and which factors can help predict it.  
As Senior Postdoctoral Researcher on the WAW-ME project, I will primarily focus on two of our domains, LAW and EDUCATION, including data collection, semantic conceptualisation of the database, and qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data.
Other research interests include: palaeography and codicology, Old English, medieval Latin, Aldhelm’s riddles

https://www.es.uzh.ch/en/aboutus/team/johannavogelsanger.html
 

Doctoral candidate

Rihab Ayed, M.A.

I graduated from the University of Burgundy in Dijon (France) in 2010. For my MA, I decided to focus on English linguistics with a particular interest in Old and Middle English. My thesis dealt with the edition and lexical analysis of a Late Middle English sermon present in the Harley MS 3118. Following the completion of my master's degree, I became a secondary-school teacher of English as a foreign language, and after a few years, I started teaching English linguistics and historical linguistics at the University of Burgundy. 

As Doctoral candidate on the WAW-ME project, I can broaden my knowledge and my understanding of Middle English and of its lexical semantic aspects. My work primarily focuses on two of our four domains, RELIGION and MEDICINE, and enables me to develop my skills in data collection and analysis, as well as in database compilation. 

https://www.es.uzh.ch/en/aboutus/team/rayed.html

Software engineer

Dr Anthony Harris MA (Oxon) MA (Res) Med. Stud. PhD (Cantab) is a fellow of Clare Hall (University of Cambridge), a visiting fellow of Kellogg College (Oxford), a Research Fellow at Regent’s Park College (University of Oxford), a visiting academic at the Department of Computer Science and Technology (Cambridge), and a Recipient of the British Academy Ker Award in Manuscript Studies (2025-2027). After a long career as a computer scientist, he embarked on a second career in academia as a mature student with a focus on the humanities. He completed his MA in English Literature at the University of Oxford, his MA Res in Medieval Studies  at the University of Reading (England), and his PhD at Sidney Sussex (University of Cambridge). His PhD (2021) considered early medieval mathematics, and astronomy in the Latin West (the ‘science’ of computus) and his general research focus lies at the intersection of the sciences and the digital humanities. He teaches middle English (Chaucer and Gawain) at Cambridge, is currently a visiting Fulbright scholar at the Committee on Medieval Studies at Harvard and has had an association with the UZH since 2002.

Tabea Hilbe

I am an advanced Bachelor’s student of English and comparative linguistics with a special interest in historical linguistics, and especially Old and Middle English. My role as a student assistant on the WAW-ME project provides an opportunity to further develop my knowledge in these fields.  

Karin Taglang

I completed my BA in English and comparative Germanic linguistics at the University of Zurich in 2017. After several years of working in journalism and cultural management, I came back to pursue my MA in 2024. My work as a research assistant on the WAW-ME project aligns with my general focus on diachronic and comparative linguistics.