Speakers & abstracts
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Speaker bios and abstracts are arranged alphabetically, by the presenters’ surnames.
A–G | H–L | M–Sa | Sc–Z
Keynote speakers
David Astle
As crossword maker in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, as well as Wordplay columnist with Spectrum, David Astle is a full-time word nerd.
He’s the author of Cluetopia, plus Puzzled, and Puzzles & Words – and now Puzzles & Words 2. He also composed such diverse diversions as Wordwit and Omega for Fairfax. While on the airwaves you can catch his weekly news clue for Radio National’s Sunday Extra with Jonathan Green. You may also recall his face from the SBS cult show, Letters and Numbers.
Read more about David Astle here.
Jackie French
Jackie French’s writing career spans 25 years, 148 wombats, over 140 books, 36 languages, 3,721 bush rats, over 60 awards in Australia and overseas, 6 possibly insane lyrebirds and assorted ‘Burke’s Backyard’ segments, radio shows, newspaper and magazine columns.
She is the Australian National Children’s Laureate for 2014 and 2015, and Senior Australian of the Year, 2015. She is also a historian, ecologist, dyslexic, and a passionate worker for literacy, the right of all children to be able to read, and the power of books.
Read more about Jackie French here.
Emeritus Professor Roland Sussex OAM
Roland (Roly) Sussex was professor of Applied Language Studies at the University of Queensland from 1989 until 2010. Before that he taught linguistics and Russian at the University of Reading (UK) and Monash University in Melbourne, and was the foundation professor of Russian at the University of Melbourne from 1977 to 1989.
He is currently research professor in the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, and the School of Languages and Cultures, at the University of Queensland.
He was chair of the Library Board of Queensland from 2009 to 2014, and is now deputy chair. He has been president of the Alliance Française of Brisbane since 2010. In 2012 he was made patron of the Institute of Professional Editors.
His current research is located in the triangle between language, culture and society, and technology. He is co-chief investigator in the PainLang Research Group at the University of Queensland, which is investigating the use of language in the diagnosis, treatment and management of pain.
His most recent major publications are The Slavic languages with Paul Cubberley (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and Andy Kirkpatrick and Roland Sussex (eds), English as an international language in Asia: Implications for language education (Springer-Verlag, 2012).
Roly Sussex writes a weekly column on language for the Brisbane Courier-Mail, and has been broadcasting every week to Queensland on ABC radio since 1997, and for the past decade to South Australia.
He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2012.