Benedikt Szmrecsanyi studied English Philology, Political Science, and Economics at the University of Freiburg (Germany) and at Georgetown University (Washington DC). He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English Philology from the University of Freiburg. Until 2012, he did postdoctoral research at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, before taking up a lectureship in English linguistics at the University of Manchester. He joined the University of Leuven in autumn 2013.