Department of Languages & Intercultural Education
Keynote Speakers
Dr Joseph Lo Bianco is a professor of Language and Literacy Education at Melbourne University. He has a B Economics and Grad Dip (Migrant Studies) from Monash University, B Ed from La Trobe University, MA (Bilingual Education) from the University of Melbourne, Company Directors Diploma from the University of Sydney, and PhD from the Australian National University. An active researcher, he has published in excess of 120 scholarly papers and 20 major books and reports. Among his recent book publications are Australian Literacies: Informing National Policy on Literacy Education, with P. Freebody , 2001. Voices from Pnomh Penh, Developmetn and Language, 2002; Teaching Invisible Culture: Classroom Practice and Theory, with C. Crozet, 2003; and Language Policy in Australia, Council of Europe, 2004. His main areas of research interest are language and literacy planning, Italian literary culture, the role of language in Asian and European nationalism, global English especially in the use of English as a medium of instruction in schools and higher education in Asia, the emergence of romanise writing in Vietnam, Australian indigenous languages in Education, and multi-literacies and intercultural perspectives in teaching.
Dr Kate Burridge is professor of Linguistics at Monash University. A regular presenter on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio on language matters, she has a BA (Honours) in Linguistics and German from the University of Western Australia and a PhD from the University of London. Before taking up the Chair of Linguistics at Monash University, Professor Burridge taught at the Polytechnic of Central London, and the Department of Linguistics at La Trobe University. Her main areas of research are grammatical change in Germanic languages, the Pennsylvania German spoken by Amish and Mennonite communities in Canada, the notion of linguistic taboo and the structure and history of English has published extensively in all these areas and among her more recent publications are Forbidden Words: Taboo and the censoring of language, with K. Allan, 2006; Weeds in the Garden of Words: Further observations on the tangled history of the English language, 2004; Blooming
English: Observations on the Roots, Cultivation and Hybrids of English Language, 2002; Introducing English Grammar, with K. Borjars, 2001; English in Australia
and New Zealand - An Introduction to its Structure, History and Use, with J.
Mulder, 1998; and Canada-Australia: Towards a Centenary of Partnership, with
L. Foster and G. Turcotte, 1997.
