Sjef Barbiers is a linguist specializing in the syntax of Dutch and its dialects. He studied Dutch language and literature at Leiden University, where he obtained his PhD with distinction in 1995 with a dissertation on Dutch syntax. After several years as a postdoctoral researcher and university lecturer in Leiden, and as a visiting scholar at Cambridge (USA), he worked from 2000 to 2016 as a researcher at the Meertens Institute (KNAW) in Amsterdam. There he led two major dialect syntax projects: the Flemish-Dutch project Syntactic Atlas of Dutch Dialects (SAND) and the European Dialect Syntax project. In addition, he served as research leader for Linguistics and Language Variation, as a member of the management team of the Meertens Institute, and from 2005 to 2015 as Professor of Dutch Variation Linguistics at Utrecht University. He was also one of the leaders of the research infrastructure project CLARIAH (2014–2019). Since 2016 he has been Professor of Dutch Linguistics at Leiden University, where he served, among other roles, as chair of the BA and MA programs in Dutch language and Culture, director of the Centre for Digital Humanities (LUCDH) and director of the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL).
Since 1 September 2025, Sjef has been managing and scientific director of the Dutch Language Institute. He continues to work one day a week as professor of Dutch Linguistics at LUCL.
Publications
See Leiden University.