Joren Somers studied English, German, Dutch and Icelandic at Ghent University, the University of Kent and the University of Iceland. After a short career in teaching, he obtained a PhD from Ghent University on alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat verbs in German and Icelandic. As of September 2024, he has been employed as a Francqui Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation at the University of Texas at Austin. His research is focused on non-canonical subjecthood in German, Icelandic and Dutch.