Otto Zwartjes is an internationally renowned scholar in the fields of cultural and linguistic contact, areas in which he has established world-leading research trajectories.  He is particularly acclaimed for his work on Medieval Iberian Hispano-Arabic poetry and the History of Linguistics, in particular Missionary Linguistics. To date he has published 8 monographs, 13 edited volumes, and 66 peer-reviewed articles, all in top-tier journals and with eminent publishers.  His major intellectual contributions to his specialist realm of expertise include a monograph on Hispano-Arabic poetry: Love Songs from al-Andalus. This volume is “of great interest to the beginning as well as the advanced scholar of the kharja-s. It is an excellent and thorough selection of a variety of examples” (Aljamía 13, 2001), an “outstanding work, extremely useful and instructive to all those concerned with medieval Romance and Semitic literatures … a most welcome and refreshing trait” (Romance Philology 52, 1999). The Brill Bibliography on Strophic poetry and music from al-Andalus, and their influences in the East and West (with Henk Heijkoop), is another innovative work, an “extensive book of reference, in the historical sense as well as the range of topics. The selective discography completes the picture. This work is indispensable for researchers in the field of literature, cultural history, or music” (Bibliotheca Orientalis 56, 2009). As one of the world’s most renowned scholars on missionary linguistics, in 2011 as Fellow of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS, Royal Academy of Sciences) Otto Zwartjes completed his cutting-edge monograph on Portuguese Missionary Grammars (John Benjamins). This book is the result of twenty years of research and is of the utmost importance to all researchers in missionary linguistics in any linguistic context. It is, and it will remain, a fundamental reference in the field. This study offers a complete and thorough theoretical and historical study of Portuguese missionary linguistics during the pre-modern period (16th – 18th centuries). As an essential work of reference in this scientific area, Zwartjes' volume deserves to be read, studied and analysed by experts, scholars and the wider public specialising in or interested in this subject (Historiographia Linguistica 39, 2012) Dr Zwartjes is Director of the ROLD Research Group (Revitalising Older Linguistic Documentation) which is affiliated to the Amsterdam Centre of Language and Communication (ACLC).  This academic association brings together expert scholars from different countries, and is unique in investigating older texts (colonial, postcolonial, missionary and non-missionary, word lists of travelers and historians) with the following objectives: historical linguistics, the history of linguistics, sociocultural analysis, and translation studies. Under Dr Zwartjes' leadership, ROLD organises a bi-annual meeting of international luminaries in order to further promote its research and findings. Dr Zwartjes has also organised and managed nine International Conferences on Missionary Linguistics, an event that for the first time brought together scholars with expertise on missionary linguistic sources all over the world. Five volumes of selected papers arising from these prestigious conferences have been published with John Benjamins. Dr Zwartjes is currently Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) at the University of Amsterdam and Leiden University (International Studies) where he designs and delivers both postgraduate and undergraduate teaching in Spanish/Hispanic and Romance Linguistics and Translation Studies.  He is an expert and very experienced tutor and holds a Dutch teaching qualification. Otto Zwartjes was Chair of Spanish Linguistics and Linguistic Theory at the University of Oslo from 1999 to 2004. Prior to that he was Lecturer in the Spanish Department and Researcher in the Islamic Department at the University of Nijmegen where he finished his PhD project on Medieval Hispano-Arabic Literature (1995).  He majored in Spanish Language and Culture at the University of Amsterdam (1986), with minors in Classical Arabic and Portuguese. Dr. Zwartjes is “Investigador Colaborador” in the Centro de Estudos em Letras, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal, and Profesor Invitado of the PhD Programme, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain. He is visiting Researcher and Guest Lecturer at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UNAM, (FES Acatlán), CIESAS (Mexico City) and Guadalajara, Jalisco, Göteborg Universitet, Universidade de São Paolo, Rhode Island College, Universität Basel, Universität Zürich, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Universitetet I Tromsø. Dr. Zwartjes was invited as Eminent Scholar by the Japan Society for the promotion of Science (JSPS) under the auspices of the "Invitational Training Program for Advanced Japanese Research Institutes". In Japan he was hosted by the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) / Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS). He is also General Editor of the book series Lingüística misionera (Vervuert/ Iberoamericana), Associate Editor of the journal Historiographia Linguistica (John Benjamins), and member of the editorial boards of the journals Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana (Frankfurt am Main & Madrid: Vervuert & Iberoamericana), Grupo de Estudos Lingüísticos do Estado de São Paulo (GEL) (São Paulo, Brazil), UniverSOS (Valencia, Spain), Revista de Lenguas y Literaturas Indoamericanas (Departamento de Lenguas, Literatura y Comunicación Facultad de Educación, Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades Universidad de La Frontera, Chile) and Todas as Letras: Revista de Língua e Literatura (São Paulo, Brazil). Dr. Zwartjes acts as expert scholarly reviewer for international journals, and has peer reviewed papers for Anuario de Lingüística Hispánica (Valladolid), Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Historiografía Lingüística (BoSEHL), La Corónica, International Journal of American Linguistics, Journal of Arabic Literature, Journal of Jesuit Studies, Journal of Language Contact, Language and Communication (An Interdisciplinary Journal), Language and History (Journal of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas), Language and Linguistics, Revista Argentina de Historiografía Lingüística, Revista México y la Cuenca del Pacífico, Sociolinguistic Studies/ Estudios de Sociolingüística, and Anáis de História de Além-Mar.