Languages & civilisations of the Christian Near East (Armenian, Caucasian, Albanian, Coptic, Georgian); epigraphy. palaeography; Armenian history;
Elected 2012
History of Central Asia; Iranians (Sogodian, Khotantese) in China; cultural exchanges between China and the West from Han to Tang dynasties; Chinese history during the Sui, Tang dynasty and Five Dynasties Period, Dunhuang and Turfan manuscripts
The documentation and morpho-syntactic description of modern Arabic dialects and Modern South Arabian languages; theoretical phonology and morphology with reference to Arabic and Modern South Arabian