The department has a very active research community and a diverse research profile. It houses one of the world’s most excellent research communities in linguistics, amongst them the AcqVA Aurora Center, etablished in 2020.

The department houses research groups within cognitive linguistics (CLEAR), Sami language technology (Giellatekno and Divvun), socio-linguistics (LAIDUA), language acquisition (LAVA), and theoretical linguistics (CASTL-FISH). The Department’s research communities within literature, art history, and media and documentation studies are nationally highly competitive, and are organised into research groups such as Health Art Society (HAS), Russian Space, and WARGAME.