Dr JF Quer (b. 1965) has been appointed professor of Linguistics of Romance Languages at the Faculty of Humanities of the Universiteit van Amsterdam.

In his research, Josep Quer focuses on the interface between syntactic structures and semantic interpretation. He combines a theoretical approach to the language faculty within the generative linguistics framework with the analysis and comparison of different languages, in particular Romance languages and sign languages.

Dr Quer obtained his master’s in Grammatical Theory at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona with research on the syntax and interpretation of negative items in Catalan and in Greek. He obtained his PhD degree at Utrecht University in 1998, with a dissertation on the distribution and interpretation of grammatical mood (indicative/subjunctive) in Catalan and Spanish. He subsequently worked as postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University (1998) and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (1998-2000). In 2000-2001, he was employed as university lecturer in the department of Linguistics of Romance Languages of the Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Since 2002, Dr Quer has been affiliated to the department of General Linguistics of Barcelona University as research professor of ICREA (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats), where he conducted research on theoretical and descriptive aspects of sign languages. The first grammar of Catalan Sign Language has been published under his supervision.

Dr Quer’s publications have appeared in international journals such as Language, Probus and Lingua. Furthermore, he has edited volumes and contributed to collaborative publications such as Gramàtica del català contemporani (ed. J Solà, 2002) and Semàntica (ed. MT Espinal, 2002). Dr Quer is vice president of the Sign Language Linguistics Society and editor of the journal Sign Language and Linguistics. Since 2006 he has been a member of Institut d’Estudis Catalans, the Catalan academy of sciences.