“Multilingualism and Translanguaging in Australian Cities” Conference

 

Date: Monday, 24 November 2025

Location: Perth, The University of Western Australia (Crawley Campus)

This is the first call for abstracts for a conference on multilingualism and the dynamics of language in Australian cities. Please, mark the dates on your calendars.

This project aims to investigate the presence of writing in languages other than English (LOTEs) in Australian cities. Taking the ‘city’ and urban areas as a locus of communication, it looks at multilingualism and translingual writing in major urban centres. While research in LOTEs in Australia has focused on migrant and missionary writing, much extant literature that was not written in English has been largely ignored. 

These texts include works of literature but also materials such as personal letters, diaries, and newspapers. Using tools from digital humanities and archival and heritage studies, this project seeks to reveal the “hidden” multilingualism of different writers in and around Australian cities, from their founding up until the present. 

What are the literary and non-literary spaces that languages other than English have occupied in Australian cities throughout time? What can a comparison between different cities around Australia tell us about translingual writing? What role does multilingualism play in Australian writing today?

Keynote speakers

We are delighted that the following scholars will present keynote addresses: 

Professor Emerita Jane Simpson (ANU)

Professor Adrian Vickers (The University of Sydney)

Professor Sender Dovchin (Curtin University)

Abstract Submission

We invite proposals for 20 minute presentations that are related to the broad theme of languages other than English and multilingualism in Australian cities. Case studies on specific datasets, language contact, as well as broader theoretical discussions are welcome, provided the linguistic varieties involved are not focussed on English.

Please send a title and 300 word abstract (excluding references) to joshua.j.brown@uwa.edu.au and kate.averis@uwa.edu.au by May 15.

Coffee and lunch will be served. 

The organisers plan to arrange a published outcome from the symposium.

This event is supported by funding from the School of Humanities, The University of Western Australia.

Cost: Free, but registration is essential.