Rebecca Grollemund
Ph.D. in Linguistics, 2012, Université Lumière Lyon 2 & Laboratoire CNRS ‘Dynamique du Langage’, France
Historical Linguistics and African Linguistics with a focus on Bantu and Bantoid languages
2022-2026: NSF Dynamic Language Infrastructure - NEH Documenting Endangered Languages (DLI-DEL) “Continuity and divergence in Cameroonian languages: New perspectives on the Bantu genesis”. $420,000. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2152822&HistoricalAwards=false
2023-2024: Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, University of Missouri
2022-2023: Tri-Continental Partnership (3CP), project "Understanding African migrations through the study of specialized vocabulary". $5,000.
2016-2026: University of Missouri Honors College, ASH Research Teams, Documenting Luyia together. $22,000 per year (total $220,000).
2022-2023: Provost's Jr. Faculty Research and Creative Activity Award ($1,000)
Grollemund, Rebecca, Derek Nurse and John R. Watters (eds). In press. 2026. “Bantoid and Bantu in Cameroon: an historical re-assessment”, Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter Mouton, 414 pp.
Grollemund, Rebecca, Braden Brown, Chaeli Rule and Gerard Philippson. 2026. A reconstruction of Proto-Sawabantu (Cameroon). In Vicki Carstens, Katherine Russell, Olawale Akingbade, Deborah Morton & Michael Diercks (eds.), Pamoja tena ‘Together again’: African linguistics after COVID, pp. 127-166. Berlin: Language Science Press
Grollemund, Rebecca, Derek Nurse and John R. Watters. 2026. Bantoid and Bantu languages in Cameroon. In Bantoid and Bantu in Cameroon: an historical re-assessment, Grollemund, R., Nurse, D. and Watters, J. (eds). Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 1-14.
Grollemund, Rebecca and Gérard Philippson. 2026. A new definition of North-Western Bantu languages based on the study of Proto-Bantu *k and *g. In Bantoid and Bantu in Cameroon: an historical re-assessment, Grollemund, R., Nurse, D. and Watters, J. (eds). Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 15-84.
Green, Christopher and Rebecca Grollemund. 2026. Jarawan languages: Perspectives on (re)classification. In Bantoid and Bantu in Cameroon: an historical re-assessment, Grollemund, R., Nurse, D. and Watters, J. (eds). Berlin/Boston, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 85-129.
Grollemund, Rebecca and Mark Pagel. 2026. Phylogenetic approaches to Bantu historical linguistics. In The Oxford Guide to the Bantu Languages, Marten, L., Kula, N., Zeller, J. & Hurst, E. (eds). Oxford University Press, pp. 448-455.
Hartmann, Frederik, Sean Roberts, Paul Valdes and Rebecca Grollemund. 2024. Investigating environmental effects on phonology using diachronic models, 6-e8, Evolutionary Human Sciences.
Peacey, Sarah, Baihui Wu, Rebecca Grollemund and Ruth Mace. 2024. The cultural evolution of witchcraft beliefs. Evolution and Human Behavior, 45:5, 106610.
Grollemund, Rebecca, David Schoenbrun and Jan Vansina. 2023. Moving Histories: Bantu Language Expansions, Eclectic Economies and Mobilities. Journal of African History, pp. 1-25. doi:10.1017/S0021853722000780
Marlo, Michael R., Rebecca Grollemund, Thanh Nguyen, Erik Platner, Sarah Pribe and Alexa Thein. 2022. A phylogenetic classification of Luyia language varieties. In Galen Sibanda, Deo Ngonyani, Jonathan Choti and Ann Biersteker (eds.), Descriptive and theoretical approaches to African linguistics: Selected papers from the 49th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Berlin: Language Science Press, pp. 383-407.
Philippson, Gérard and Rebecca Grollemund. 2019. Methods of Bantu historical language classification. In The Bantu Languages, Second Edition, Van de Velde, M. and Bostoen, K. (eds). London-New-York: Routledge Press, pp. 335-354.
Grollemund, Rebecca, Jean-Marie Hombert and Simon Branford. 2018. A Phylogenetic study of North-Western Bantu and South Bantoid languages. In The Dynamics of Language: Plenary and focus lectures from the 20th International Congress of Linguists Cape Town, July 2018, Mesthrie, R. and Bradley, D. (eds), Cape Town: UCT Press, pp. 118-132.
Patin, Etienne, Marie Lopez, Rebecca Grollemund, Paul Verdu, Christine Harmant, Hélène Quach, Guillaume Laval, George H. Perry, Luis B. Barreiro, Alain Froment, Evelyne Heyer, Achille Massougbodji, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Florence Migot-Nabias, Gil Bellis, Jean-Michel Dugoujon, Joana B. Pereira, Verónica Fernandes, Luisa Pereira, Lolke Van der Veen, Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda, Carlos D. Bustamante, Jean-Marie Hombert and Lluís Quintana-Murci. 2017. Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and North America. Science 356:6337, pp. 543-546.
Grollemund, Rebecca, Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti and Mark Pagel. 2015. Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 112:43, pp. 13296-13301.
de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice, Rebecca Grollemund, Simon Branford and Koen Bostoen. 2015. Introducing a state-of-the-art phylogenetic classification of the Kikongo language cluster. Africana Linguistica, 21, pp. 87-162.
Bostoen, Koen, Bernard Clist, Charles Doumenge, Rebecca Grollemund, Jean-Marie Hombert, Joseph Koni Muluwa and Jean Maley. 2015. Middle to Late Holocene Paleoclimatic Change and the Early Bantu Expansion in the Rain Forests of West Central-Africa. Current Anthropology, 56:3, pp. 354-384.