Curriculum Vitae
My academic record: education, appointments, visiting positions, editorial and reviewing work, doctoral supervision, and languages. Use the panel below to assemble a PDF version in your browser.
Profile
I am Associate Professor of Historical and General Linguistics at Sapienza University of Rome, affiliated with the Department "ISO – Italian Institute of Oriental Studies". I received my doctorate in 2005 with a dissertation on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī.
My research encompasses historical linguistics (with particular emphasis on Indo-European comparative studies); general and theoretical linguistics (including phonology, morphonology, and axiomatization); philosophy of language; and the history of linguistics. I maintain a special interest in the Indian grammatical tradition and Renaissance linguistics.
I also have a keen interest in fonts, typography, and typesetting.
Education
PhD in Linguistics
13 May 2005
Sapienza University of Rome
Thesis: L'Aṣṭādhyāyī di Pāṇini: aspetti teorici e formali
Supervisor: Prof. Paolo Di Giovine
Master's Degree in Humanities (cum laude)
17 July 2001
Sapienza University of Rome
Thesis: Nuovo Testamento in gotico
Supervisor: Prof. Carla Del Zotto
Academic Positions
Italian National Scientific Habilitation for Full Professorship
December 2023
GLOT-01/A (Historical and General Linguistics)
Associate Professor
December 2020 – Present
GLOT-01/A (Historical and General Linguistics)
Sapienza University of Rome, Department ISO
Tenured Assistant Professor (Ricercatore confermato)
December 2014 – November 2020
Sapienza University of Rome, Department ISO
Assistant Professor (Ricercatore non confermato)
December 2011 – November 2014
Sapienza University of Rome, Department ISO
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
July 2005 – June 2009
Sapienza University of Rome, Faculty of Oriental Studies
Lector in Russian
May 2010 – October 2010
University of L'Aquila, Faculty of Humanities
Visiting Positions
Visiting Professor
September 2023
Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Toronto (Canada)
Visiting Scholar
August – September 2022
CLUL – Centro de Linguística, University of Lisbon, Lisbon (Portugal)
Visiting Scholar
March 2019
Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Russia)
Professional Service
Editorial Boards
- Rivista degli Studi Orientali (since 2021)
- Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics (since 2017)
- Rivista di Studi Sudasiatici (2006–2010)
Doctoral Program Boards
- PhD program in Linguistics, Sapienza University and Roma Tre (since 2018)
Professional Memberships
- Societas Linguistica Europaea (since 2017)
- Società Italiana di Glottologia (since 2012)
- Coffee Break Conferences project (since 2010; founder)
Anonymous reviews for journals and academic series
- Advances in Historical Linguistics (Language Science Press)
- Archiv orientální
- Archivio Glottologico Italiano
- Bhāṣā. Journal of South Asian Linguistics, Philology and Grammatical Traditions
- Collana di Studi Giapponesi (Associazione Italiana di Studi Giapponesi)
- Folia Linguistica
- Indogermanische Forschungen
- Journal of Historical Linguistics
- Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics
- Philosophy of East and West
- Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics
- Rivista degli Studi Orientali
- Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs (De Gruyter Brill)
Anonymous reviews for national research assessment exercises and grant proposals
- VQR 2015–2019 (Italy)
- VQR 2020–2024 (Italy)
- PRIN 2015 (Italy)
- Università del Piemonte Orientale, Bando Assegni di Ricerca 2020
External Referee for Doctoral Theses
- 2013: E. Brečalova, RSUH, Moscow (Russia)
- 2019: A. Leopardi, ISO, Sapienza University of Rome
- 2020: C. D'Antonio, ISO, Sapienza University of Rome
- 2023: E. Nardi, Guglielmo Marconi University, Rome
- 2026: E. Spaziani, Lettere e culture moderne, Sapienza University of Rome
Doctoral Supervision
- Andrea Di Manno, Ordine sintattico e struttura dell'informazione in paleoslavo: la legge di Wackernagel (XXXIII intake, 2017–2020). Primary Supervisor.
- Mariachiara Marchetta, Le prime riflessioni cinesi sulla classificazione dei suoni linguistici: tra modelli indiani e teoria musicale (XL intake, 2025–2028). Co-supervisor.
Languages
Native languages: Russian, Italian
Modern languages: English (good), French (reading), German (reading), Spanish (reading)
Ancient languages: Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Gothic, Old Church Slavonic
I have published academic papers in English, Italian, and Russian.
Digital and Technical Skills
Professional publishing and typesetting: Adobe InDesign; LaTeX
Font editing technologies: Experience with font editing software and workflows
Web and command-line technologies: Working knowledge of command-line environments and front-end web development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
AI-assisted software development: Good experience with LLM-based coding agents
Publications
My academic publications, with abstracts and links where available. Use the panel below for searching and filtering the list, and exporting it as a BibLaTeX .bib file.
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Talks
Conference papers and seminars I have delivered. Use the panel below for searching and filtering the list.
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Research
The lines of work behind the publications: the questions I pursue, each linked to the relevant publications and talks, followed by the events I have organized and the grants received.
Academic Profiles & Online Presence
Bibliographic records, research outputs, and institutional affiliations are available through the following academic profiles and research identifiers:
- Institutional page at Sapienza University
- IRIS (Sapienza publications database)
- Sapienza research portal
- ORCID
- Google Scholar
- Scopus author profile
- ResearchGate
- Academia.edu
- Loop (Frontiers)
- Semantic Scholar
- Humanities Commons
- LingBuzz
Research Interests
These are the principal areas of linguistics I work in, or have worked in. Most link through to the corresponding publications and talks.
Axiomatic Foundations of Linguistics
The axiomatization of linguistics constitutes a comprehensive research programme developed along the lines proposed by Anna Polivanova, who has advanced a systematic redefinition of fundamental grammatical concepts in logical-formal terms. This approach aims to reformulate the basic notions of linguistics exclusively through set-theoretical apparatus and explicitly stated correctness criteria (or axioms), thus providing a rigorous and formally transparent foundation for grammatical description. See related publications and talks.
History of Linguistics
Within the history of linguistic thought, my primary focus is the ancient Indian grammatical tradition (known as Vyākaraṇa), beginning with Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī and its exegetical corpus, which I analyze in relation to contemporary linguistic theory. See related publications and talks
Additionally, I conduct research on premodern European linguistics, from the Renaissance to the early nineteenth century. See related publications and talks.
Segmental Grammar
My research addresses the description of segmental inventories across a range of the world's languages, as well as the formal mapping between different levels of segmental representation, including phonetic, phonological, morphonological, and their interface with the paradigmatic level and beyond. See related publications and talks.
Theory of Grammaticality and Grammatical Gender
I investigate the notion of grammatical category (or inflectional category), developing Anna Polivanova's ideas concerning the concept of "strong grammaticality". This theoretical approach is tested primarily on inflectional categories such as grammatical gender. See related publications and talks.
Theory of the Comparative Method
I investigate the theoretical foundations of the comparative-reconstructive method in historical linguistics from a formal perspective, with the aim of reformulating key notions such as "linguistic relatedness", "regular sound correspondence", and related concepts within a more explicit and rigorous framework. See related publications and talks.
Philosophy of Language
My work in the philosophy of language concerns theories of meaning and reference, as well as translation theory. See related publications and talks.
Conference and Workshop Organization
22–23 December 2025
CBC14. Reading Sanskrit Texts. Deep Reading as an Analytical Method for Written, Oral, and Performative Texts, Sapienza University of Rome. Co-organized with Elisa Freschi [web].
13–14 February 2025
Gender in Grammar: History, Theory, Policy, Sapienza University of Rome [web].
10–11 December 2021
CBC11 Panel. Vyākaraṇa and its many espouses: Linguistics, Philology, Philosophy, University of Rome [web].
31 March 2017
Workshop Morpho-syntactic isoglosses in Indo-European: diachrony, typology and linguistic areas, at ISTAL 23, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Co-organized with Nikolaos Lavidas and Leonid Kulikov [web] [Booklet].
22–24 May 2014
CBC5. Space, culture, language and politics in South Asia: common patterns and local distinctions, Sapienza University of Rome [web].
15 June 2012
CBC3 Panel. Translation Techniques in the Asiatic Cultures, University of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) [web].
8–10 September 2011
CBC2. The Study of South Asia between Antiquity and Modernity. Parallels and Comparisons, Sapienza University of Rome [web].
10–12 June 2010
CBC1. Lo studio dell'Asia fra antico e moderno, Sapienza University of Rome [web].
National and EU-linked Research Grants
2022
SEED / PNR Grant. Project title: "Il Genere nella Lingua e nella Grammatica: teoria, storia e attualità". Funding amount: €10,000. Principal Investigator.
2021
PRIN 2020 project "Metalinguistic texts as a privileged data source for the knowledge of ancient languages" (total funding: €603,000; Principal Investigator: L. Lorenzetti). Research Team Member.
2018
PRIN 2017 project "Ancient languages and writing systems in contact: a touchstone for language change" (total funding: €517,000; Principal Investigator: P. Di Giovine) [project website]. Research Team Member.
Sapienza University Research Grants
2021
Project title: "Tra l'esotismo e l'eurocentrismo: grammaticalizzazione e categorie flessionali nella descrizione delle lingue indoeuropee classiche vs. quelle dell'Estremo Oriente". Funding amount: €11,320 [project page]. Principal Investigator.
2020
Project title: "Data in progress: aggiornamento, accessibilità permanente e potenzialità multidisciplinare dei database epigrafici". Funding amount: €14,000; Principal Investigator: S. Kaczko [project page]. Research Team Member.
2019
Project title: "Categorie grammaticali nominali in prospettiva sincronica, diacronica e tipologica: flessione e derivazione nelle lingue indoeuropee arcaiche e post-arcaiche". Funding amount: €14,065 [project page]. Principal Investigator.
2018
Project title: "Champollion beyond hieroglyphs. The many languages of the Rosetta Stone code breaker". Funding amount: €11,000; Principal Investigator: C. A. Ciancaglini [project page]. Research Team Member.
2017
Project title: "Sviluppi convergenti nella morfologia indoeuropea: codifica dei modificatori nominali". Funding amount: €3,000 [project page]. Principal Investigator.
2015
Project title: "Indo-European isoglosses: data collection and models of representation". Funding amount: €9,000. Principal Investigator.
2014
Project title: "Contact-based approach to the Late Indo-European isoglosses: branch-crossing features and linguistic areas". Funding amount: €4,500. Principal Investigator.
2012
Project title: "La morfologia derivazionale nelle lingue indoeuropee orientali: dal pensiero grammaticale antico all'indoeuropeistica moderna". Funding amount: €3,000. Principal Investigator.
Sapienza University Grants for Young Scholars
2021
Project title: "Grammaire Latine Étendue in Giappone: il modello greco-latino nell'opera di João Rodriguez (1562–1633?)". Funding amount: €3,400; Principal Investigator: C. D'Antonio [project page]. Faculty Mentor.
2018
Project title: "Posizionamento dei clitici in paleoslavo". Funding amount: €1,250; Principal Investigator: A. Di Manno. Faculty Mentor.
Sapienza University Conference Grants
2024
Conference Grant for the organization of the conference "Gender in Grammar". Funding amount: €2,500 [conference website]. Organizer.
2014
Conference Grant for the conference "Coffee Break Conference 5. The influence of space on culture in South Asia". Funding amount: €1,500. Organizer.
Sapienza University International Office Grants
2017
International Office Grant for a visiting scholarship for Prof. Leonid Kulikov (Ghent University). Funding amount: €9,000. Host.
2013
International Office Grant for a visiting scholarship for Prof. Alexander Lubotsky (Leiden University). Funding amount: €9,000. Host.
Awards and Distinctions
2017
FFABR Individual Research Grant. Awarded by ANVUR, the Italian national research evaluation agency. Funding amount: €3,000.
Online projects
Digital resources I build and maintain alongside my written work.
Indo-European Isoglosses
Indo-European Isoglosses (IEI) is a research database of regular phonological correspondences across attested Indo-European languages. For each reconstructed Proto-Indo-European phoneme, it records its reflexes in the daughter languages; conversely, for each phoneme in a daughter language, it lists its possible Proto-Indo-European sources.
The project aims to make the system of Indo-European sound correspondences accessible through structured data and interactive visualisation. Users can query the dataset and explore the resulting groupings of languages on a geographical map.
The platform is currently a working prototype; data coverage is partial and continuously expanding through manual curation.
Visit the project website.
Teaching
A summary of the courses I teach at Sapienza and elsewhere, with textbooks and teaching materials. For timetables, syllabi, and current course information, see my institutional teaching page.
Undergraduate courses at ISO, Sapienza University of Rome
General Linguistics
2014 – present
6 ECTS credits
Historical Linguistics
2020 – present
6 ECTS credits
Graduate courses at ISO, Sapienza University of Rome
Advanced Linguistics
2014 – present
6 ECTS credits
Other courses
- 2021 – present: CIVIS Blended Learning Course: Diachronic Linguistics in the 21st Century
- 2010: Russian language (University of L'Aquila, Faculty of Humanities)
- 2009–2010: Linguistics (Faculty of Oriental Studies, Sapienza)
- 2005–2007: Syntax (undergraduate, 4 credits, Faculty of Humanities, Sapienza)
Textbooks and teaching materials
The textbook on general linguistics co-authored with C. A. Ciancaglini is available here.
Selected unpublished teaching materials used in my courses are available here.
Contact
Where to find me and how to reach me. Fun fact: yes, the two totally different addresses point to the same location.
Office: Sapienza University of Rome
Department "ISO – Italian Institute of Oriental Studies"
"Marco Polo" building, III floor, room 316
Official address: Circonvallazione Tiburtina 4, 00185 Roma
Effective address: Viale dello Scalo di S. Lorenzo 82, 00159 Roma
Email: #
Other writings
Writing that falls outside formal academic publication: popular essays on language, materials from my courses, and the occasional unpublished draft. Use the panel below for searching and filtering the list.
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Blog
Recent posts from my blog Śabdānuśāsana (Sanskrit for ‘explanation of words’), where I write on subjects ranging from linguistics to art history.
Unable to load blog posts. Visit the blog directly on Tumblr →
Fonts
Typeface design is one of my hobbies. I often edit existing fonts for the needs of typesetting a scholarly text. Sometimes I create new fonts for some ancient languages.
Vulcanius
Version 1.04 (Updated October 20, 2004)
Description
This font renders the Gothic alphabet with glyph shapes modeled on Times New Roman. The font includes the complete Gothic alphabet, together with two glyph variants: one for the letter Sauil (S) and one for the letter Eis (I).
Download
The font is freely available for download. Please note that the font remains a work in progress; comments and suggestions are welcome.
Technical Details
- Full Gothic alphabet coverage
- Times New Roman-style glyphs
- Two alternative letter forms included
- Suitable for scholarly texts and Gothic language studies
Book Typesetting
Typography is one of my hobbies. Here you can find specimens of books, conference booklets, and journal volumes I have typeset over the years in InDesign and LaTeX, whether or not the credits name me as layout editor. Use the panel below for searching and filtering the list.
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Art Collection
Collecting art is one of my hobbies. Find here a selection of works of art in my own collection, catalogued with artist, date, medium, and provenance. Browse them as a list or as a gallery of images. Use the panel below for searching and filtering the list.
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About This Page
What this site is, how it was built, and where its data lives. Start here if you have just arrived; the menu above leads to everything else.
How this page was made
This website was built through interaction between the author and several AI applications, most notably Claude Opus and DeepSeek, with more limited use of ChatGPT. All scholarly content and data are the author's own; the interface, design, and a substantial part of the implementation were produced and then iteratively refined through AI-assisted dialogue.
Many features, including the algorithm that renders floating letters in the background, were developed as experiments, largely to test the limits of this workflow.
Privacy
What this site stores in your browser, and why, is set out in the Privacy Policy — also reachable from the shield in the toolbar above.
Administration
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Artemij Keidan
Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 2026
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Artemij Keidan
Sapienza University of Rome — Department "ISO – Italian Institute of Oriental Studies"
Circonvallazione Tiburtina 4, 00185 Roma, Italy
Email: #
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