Welcome to new Language Studies staff

The University's world-wide reputation for excellence in modern languages has been strengthened by the arrival of two new researchers in the School of Language Studies. Welcome to Dr Sarah Ogilvie and Professor Catherine Travis.

Dr Sarah Ogilvie will head up the Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC). She takes over from Dr Bruce Moore, who has retired after many years in which he has cemented the reputation of the ANDC as the centre for understanding the history of Australian English words.  Dr Ogilvie  is well-placed to  carry forward the lexicographic work of the ANDC. She's worked on the biggest dictionaries in the world (the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and Shorter Oxford Dictionary. But more recently she's been helping the smallest languages in the world - by developing better dictionaries so as to improve the preservation and revitalisation of endangered languages.

Formerly of the University of New Mexico (and an ANU graduate in Japanese and linguistics) Professor Catherine Travis is the new Chair of Modern European Languages. A specialist in Spanish language, she brings to the position a passion for languages and their interaction with culture and society. She has major research projects on the variation in ways speakers use language, both at home and in the diaspora, and what this tells us about the social and cultural meanings of language use. With the rapid growth of Spanish immigration to Australia, research in this area has significant policy and educational implications.