Prof. Dr. Natalia Gagarina is Head of the Research Area 2 'Language Development & Multilingualism'. She has been an extraordinary professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin since September 2020 and visiting professor at Uppsala University since December 2017. At ZAS she is Principal Investigator of two projects and currently working with

• Prof. Angela Grimm, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität; Prof. Tanja Rinker, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt; Prof. Anna-Lena Scherger, Technische Universität Dortmund; Diagnosis of language abilities in multilingual children: Validation of a test battery​​​​​​
• Prof. Dr. Pia Knoeferle, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Dr. Katja Maquate, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Real-time register comprehension in adolescent heritage speakers' languages

Her research focuses on monolingual and bilingual (a)typical language acquisition in the areas of lexicon, morphosyntax, discourse, as well as aspect and anaphors. In recent years, she has worked intensively on the macro- and microstructure of narratives and the development of language assessment methods for multilingual children.