Dr. Ellen-Petra Kester is Associate Professor of Spanish linguistics at Utrecht University. After receiving her Ph.D. from Utrecht University, she was employed at the University of Amsterdam where she continued her work on the syntax of Germanic and Romance languages and initiated research on Papiamento/u, the Spanish-Portuguese-lexifier creole language spoken in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.

Over the years she developed a strong interest in the multilingual language situation of the six Caribbean islands formerly known as the Netherlands Antilles, where Papiamento/u and English-lexifier creoles are the main home languages. This created a shift in the focus of her research to language use, language attitudes and the role of identity in the communities of these islands and among Caribbean students in the Netherlands. 

In 2013, Ellen-Petra Kester carried out a government mandated research project on the islands of St. Eustatius, together with prof. dr. Nicholas Faraclas (University of Puerto Rico) and dr. Eric Mijts (University of Aruba), which led to a change in the language of instruction  in the education system of the island (Faraclas, Kester and Mijts 2019). A similar project was conducted by the team in 2020-2022 to provide a language policy for the island of Bonaire (Faraclas, Kester & Mijts 2022), where Papiamentu was recognized under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in 2024. 

In 2016, Ellen-Petra Kester joined a project funded by the Uitvoeringsorganisatie van de Twinningfaciliteit Suriname - Nederland (UTSN), to develop a course and a manual on cultural diversity and multilingualism for teacher trainers in Surinam (Kambel, Kester, Le Pichon-Vorstman & Schmeitz 2018). 

Ellen-Petra Kester was the director of the Master’s program on Multilingualism and Language Acquisition (Meertaligheid en Taalverwerving) from 2016 until 2021 and will resume this task in 2024-2025. She also teaches courses on Spanish linguistics in the Bachelor’s program on Spanish Language and Culture at Utrecht University. 

Since 2010, Ellen-Petra Kester has been a guest lecturer in the Master’s program for Education at the University of Curaçao, teaching courses and supervising students’ research in the domain of multilingualism, language contact and language acquisition. She has also conducted multiple research projects in close collaboration with students from Aruba and Curaçao at Utrecht University.