Keynote Speakers

Emerita Professor Jean Fornasiero, University of Adelaide

Jean Fornasiero is Professor Emerita of French Studies at the University of Adelaide, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and an Officer in the Ordre des Palmes académiques. She served as President of LCNAU from 2016-2021 and as Founding Secretary, then President of the Australian Society for French Studies from 1993-2002. She continues to promote the cause of languages education through research and other projects. During her career, she taught language courses at all levels, taking a particular interest in translation studies. She is widely published in nineteenth-century French studies and is currently engaged in bringing intercultural French-Australian histories to the wider public through writing and exhibitions.

Professor Alexandra Ludewig, University of Western Australia

Alexandra Ludewig is the Head of UWA’s School of Humanities, which offers European Languages at undergraduate level and eight world languages in its Master of Translation Studies.

Her teaching and research focus on issues of identity and ‘Heimat’ and she has published in both German and English on these topics. Among her publications are several monographs, Screening Nostalgia: 100 Years of German Heimat Film (2011),  Born German: Re-born in Western Australia (2016), War Time on Wadjemup (2019) and The Lives and Legacies of a Carceral Island (2022), as well as articles relating to drama pedagogy.

Associate Professor Dwi Noverini Djenar, University of Sydney

Novi Djenar is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney. Her research interests lie in questions related to the way language facilitates understandings of sociocultural and political ideas, including ideas about self-other relations, identity and style. Novi has published in the areas of discourse and pragmatics, sociolinguistics and grammar, focusing on Indonesian. Her book Style and Intersubjectivity in Youth Interaction (with Michael Ewing and Howard Manns) approaches the study of youth interaction through the concept of sociability. Novi’s current work expands the focus on youth to examining the way Indonesians relate to each other in public.

Emerita Professor Jane Simpson, Australian National University

Emerita Professor Jane Simpson FASSA FAHA RSNSW studies the structure and use of several Australian Aboriginal languages: Warumungu, Kaurna and Warlpiri. She has taught and convened different types of courses on Australian Aboriginal languages since 1996.  She has worked on revitalisation and maintenance of Indigenous languages in the Tennant Creek area, dictionary projects, a longitudinal study of Aboriginal children acquiring creoles, English and traditional languages, and on the National Indigenous Languages Report. She is Professor Emerita at the Australian National University.