Feature articles

Distinguished Professor Katherine Demuth—an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow at the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University, and Director of the Child Language Lab there—is leading a research team that is using both brain imaging and behavioural methods to look at children’s processes acquisition of language.  

Associate Professor Nick Thieberger is a linguistics academic and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow, based at The University of Melbourne, who is digitising and archiving the records of our most at-risk indigenous languages.

Professor Thieberger and his team are building and populating the databases that hold these records, and developing methodology that will allow the public, and particularly speakers of endangered languages, to have greater access to the raw materials of language research including transcripts, words lists, and recordings made in the field.

The Australian Research Council (ARC) recognises and celebrates National Reconciliation Week, which is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. This year, the theme of National Reconciliation Week is ‘Don’t Keep History a Mystery’, which presents an opportunity to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, as a number of research projects funded by the ARC are helping us to do.