I’m a linguist based at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. My research centres on the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, encompassing work on multilingual practices, language variation and change, migration and language in the classroom. I feel strongly about the importance of interpreting linguistic research for diverse audiences and bringing it to bear in useful ways on contemporary social issues. At its core, my research work seeks to understand how and why multilingual and multilectal speakers draw on their different linguistic resources to express their place in the world. I explore this across several interconnected focuses:

• (small-scale) multilingualism, multilingual repertoires + language ideologies
• critical sociolinguistics and language rights
• the languages and linguistics of Aboriginal Australia
• heritage language identities, especially the Celtic languages
• language in the classroom; linguistics for high-school students

I am currently engaged in fieldwork and community language support in the linguistically diverse and highly multilingual region of Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Recent projects include an ELDP-funded documentation of the Burarra language (Maningrida region – archival deposit here) and collaborative work with community organisations to record artists’ narratives and procedural texts in local Aboriginal languages.

I enjoy making linguistics accessible and interesting for diverse audiences, including school students, minority language speakers and the general public. I am co-founder of the award-winning Linguistics Roadshow – an interactive showcase about the science of language for high-school students – and have extensive experience working with schools and Indigenous community institutions in Arnhem Land and north-west Victoria. I have contributed many non-academic publications about languages and linguistics, including articles for The Conversation and language and culture resources for school curricula and Indigenous art exhibitions.