Christiane M. Bongartz has been a Full Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Cologne, Germany since 2004. She currently serves as chair of the English Department and served as Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities from 2007-2011. After her university graduation from the University of Cologne in 1993, she spent 12 years in the United States, working as a lecturer, research assistant, teaching assistant and assistant professor at several American universities and colleges. Her main areas of interest are theoretical linguistics, especially syntax and morphology, and applied linguistics, in particular second language acquisition and interlanguage representations. Her publications include articles and monographs on immersion and child second language acquisition as well as on generative syntax.