Howard (Howie) Manns studies language and society in Australia and Indonesia.

His research focuses on what happens when speakers from different backgrounds (social, cultural, linguistic) come into contact and how they negotiate meaning. He examines how diverse communities, over time, come to develop shared identities and ways of speaking. 

Howie has co-written or co-edited books on shifting language practices in Indonesia (Style and Intersubjectivity in Youth Interaction; Contact Talk), the evolution of global Englishes (Australian English Reimagined; Developing World Englishes) and intercultural communication (Communication Across Cultures). He has also published widely on deafblind communication. 

Howie's work draws on theoretical and methodological tools from sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. His approach to language study is informed by Conversation Analysis and interactional sociolinguistics, but he also draws on interviews and ethnographic methods to provide a full account of how people view and use language, and assume and ascribe identities.

Before coming to Monash, Howie worked as an English teacher in Indonesia and as a Persian (Farsi) linguist in the US Navy.