I have been Professor of Scandinavian Languages at the University of Turku since 2010. Before that I had a position as senior lecturer at the University of Helsinki (2006–2009), where I completed my PhD in 2003 and my MA in 1994. In 2020 I was appointed honorary doctor at Uppsala University. In addition to this I have a B.Phil.Isl.-degree from the University of Iceland, where I studied  in 1991–1994. I also have an honorary High school diploma from Clovis West High School, where I was an exchange student in 1984–1985.

In 2003–2006 I coordinated a research project on Finland-Swedish syntax at the Society for Swedish literature in Finland and in 2006–2009 I had funding for a post doc-project on dialect syntax from the Academy of Finland (University of Helsinki). I have participated in several Scandinavian research projects and networks on variation (NORMS, ScanDiaSyn, N'CLAV, SoNoGlo). Recently I was the leader of the Turku part of the research program Interaction and Variation in Pluricentric Languages - Communicative Patterns in Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish (IVIP), which was financed by Riksbankens jubileumsfond in Sweden 2013–2020.

I have been the head of Scandinavian Languages at the University of Turku since 2012. Currently I am also member of the steering group of the Centre for Research on Language and Wellbeing and the Executive Committee for Collaboration on Health, Diagnostics and Drug Development. At the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland, I am the Scholarly board and Chair of the Linguistic Committee. I am also member of the editorial boards of the bookseries Topics in Address Research (John Benjamins) and the  journals Arkiv för nordisk filologi, Folkmålsstudier, Nordic Journal of Linguistics, Íslenskt mál, Orð og tunga, Språk och stil and Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv. 

My research covers different aspects of spoken language, grammar and discourse. During the last few years I have been focusing on pragmatic routines, such as address practices. I have, among other things, co-edited the volume Address Practice as Social Action (Palgrave 2015) together with Catrin Norrby (Stockholm University).

On-going research collaboration:

• Interactional linguistics
• Variational pragmatics 
• Language, multilingualism and well-being
• Digital communication

I am also interested in construction grammar, dialect syntax and historical linguistics. Within these fields I have co-edited of the volumes Constructions in Finland-Swedish Syntax (Wide & Lyngfelt 2009, in Swedish), Language in History – History in Language (Lehti-Eklund, Wide, Tiisala & Lamberg 2009, in Swedish), Nordic Languages and Linguistic Typology (Eriksen & Wide 2011) and Swedish Constructions (Lyngfelt & Wide 2014).