Nikitina was awarded the CNRS bronze medal in 2017 for her groundbreaking work in general linguistics.

She was then a post-doctoral researcher at the TOPOI excellence cluster at Humbold University of Berlin.

[5] From 2018 to 2023, Nikitina was a member of the Scientific Council of the Institut des Sciences Humaines et Sociales (InSHS) of the CNRS.

[6] Nikitina is a member of the editorial board ofTransactions of the Philological Society, Faits de Langues and Language in Africa, and a member of the Scientific committee of the Journal of African Languages and Literatures (JALaLit).

Nikitina received in 2017 the bronze medal of CNRS "in recognition of the diversity of approaches, languages and linguistic phenomena covered by her work".