Building Australia’s languages & cultures capability
Languages connect us, to each other and to the world.
But Australia’s capacity to make those connections is being eroded by the long-term decline in languages education.
In one of the world’s most culturally diverse nations, language learning builds understanding across communities while giving Australians deeper access to the cultures, histories and societies of our region and the wider world.
The Australian Academy of the Humanities has established a Languages and Cultures Committee, bringing together some of Australia’s foremost experts in languages, cultures and language education, to champion their national importance and help build the national capability Australia will need for the decades ahead.
The Committee’s establishment follows the release of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education report, Security and Prosperity in Asia: Building Asia capability in Australia through the education system and beyond, which warns of an “existential threat” to many disciplines underpinning Australia’s Asia capability.
About the Committee
The Languages and Cultures Committee brings together leading scholars and practitioners from across Australia to champion and strengthen the nation’s capability in languages and cultural knowledge.
The Committee makes the case for languages and cultural knowledge as a national priority, vital to understanding Australia’s diverse communities, deepening our engagement with the world, and sustaining the expertise Australia needs for the future.
Drawing on expertise spanning Asian Studies, Indigenous Studies, European languages and cultures, Classical Studies, linguistics, public policy and university language programs, the Committee assesses Australia’s education and research capability in languages and cultures, strengthens the evidence base, and develops practical policy solutions.
Its initial priorities include establishing an AI and languages Community of Practice and examining collaborative models for university language provision, including how such models can strengthen rather than diminish language capability.
Together, its members bring deep expertise and diverse perspectives on Australia’s linguistic and cultural landscape, connecting scholarship, education and policy to strengthen national capability. Members include:
Professor Greg Hainge FAHA (Chair)
Greg Hainge FAHA is a leading scholar in cultural studies, with expertise spanning French literature, sound studies, film and philosophy. The connecting thread across his diverse research is the interpretation of difficult texts, the work of making sense of what is unfamiliar, complex, or unlike ourselves. For Greg this is more than a scholarly method: he argues that the capacity to engage well with people, ideas and cultures different from our own is among the most important things a society can cultivate, and that nothing builds it more powerfully than learning other languages and understanding other cultures.
Professor Michael Haugh FAHA
Michael Haugh FAHA is Professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland. He is lead of the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA) and co-director of the Language Technology and Data Analysis Lab (LADAL), which are national infrastructures that support research on languages in Australia and its region. His research focuses on the role of language in social interaction, but he also has a longstanding interest in languages and cultures education more broadly.
Professor John Hajek FAHA
John Hajek FAHA is President of the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU), Professor of Italian Studies at Melbourne University, as well as head of the European languages section in the Academy. He has worked actively very in language education and research for many years and is a passionate advocate of the benefits of both for Australia and its people. He has worked closely with governments and also published extensively on language education at all levels in Australasia – including co-authoring reports on languages in Australian universities on behalf of the Academy.
Professor Alexandra Ludewig
Alexandra Ludewig is Head of the School of Humanities at The University of Western Australia, is a scholar of German, European and Translation Studies. Her award-winning lecturing has been featured in a blog hosted by “learning inspired” (2024).
Her teaching and research focus on issues of language, identity and ‘Heimat’ and she has published extensively in both German and English on these topics, including several monographs: Screening Nostalgia. 100 Years of German Heimat Film, published by Transcript Verlag in 2011, Born German. Re-Born in Western Australia by UWA Publishing in 2016, and War Time on Wadjemup. A Social History of the Rottnest Island Internment Camp by UWAP 2019. Her Festschrift, More than Gold and Honey, by UWAP 2021, was launched by WA’s then Premier, Mark McGowan. In 2023 she co-authored the Routledge volume The Lives and Legacy of a Carceral Island: A Biographical History of Wadjemup/Rottnest Island together with Ann Curthoys and Shino Konishi. The book has since won the Margaret Medcalf Award and a WA History Council Award (Best Local History). Since 2025, her NCP-funded study tours focus on Indonesia and Japan, issues of colonisation and transdisciplinarity.
Professor Emerita Krishna Sen FAHA
Krishna Sen is Professor Emerita in the School of Humanities at the University of Western Australia, where she served as Dean of Arts for nearly a decade starting in 2009. In that role, she oversaw the university’s language initiatives, which led to more than 100% increase in enrolments in most languages. She was part of the team that designed the New Colombo Plan and served for several years on its Reference Group chaired (ex officio) by the Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs. She was a board member of the Hawke Research Institute for several years and most recently served as a member of the Senate of Murdoch University.
Professor Catherine Travis FAHA
Catherine Travis FAHA is Professor of Modern European Languages at the ANU, with extensive experience in teaching, administration, and research related to languages in the tertiary sector. She has an undergraduate degree in Asian Studies from the ANU (where she studied Japanese and Korean) and a PhD in Hispanic Linguistics from La Trobe University. Prior to taking up the position at the ANU in 2012, she worked for 10 years at the University of New Mexico (USA), with a joint position between the Departments of Spanish & Portuguese and Linguistics. At the ANU, she has held several leadership roles, including Head of the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics (2014-2016), and Convenor of Spanish, of Languages, and of various other language programs. She has been a CI on large-scale projects such as the ‘University Languages Portal’ (2014-2016); the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CoEDL, 2014-2022); and the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA; 2019-present).
Professor Clint Bracknell FAHA
Clint Bracknell FAHA is a Nyoongar song-maker from the south coast of Westen Australia and Professor of Music at UWA. He investigates connections between song, language, and landscapes. Clint has co-translated groundbreaking Indigenous language works in film and theatre, leads development of the Mayakeniny performance resource website, and releases Nyoongar music under the name Maatakitj.
He was appointed to the inaugural Creative Australia First Nations Board in 2025 and served on the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Council from 2019-2025, appointed as Chair in 2024. He was elected to the Academy of the Humanities (Arts section) in 2022.
Associate Professor T.V. (Trevor) Evans FAHA
T.V. (Trevor) Evans FAHA is an Associate Professor, working as a member of the History and Archaeology discipline within the School of Humanities, at Macquarie University. He is a linguist focused on ancient languages, especially Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and the people who wrote and spoke them. Trevor is best known for innovative approaches to the analysis of postclassical Greek and his work is recognised as a catalyst for fresh directions in the study of the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) and the language of Greek papyri. He was also an assistant editor of the British Academy’s colossal Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources.
Associate Professor Kayoko Enomoto
Kayoko Enomoto is an Associate Professor in Japanese Studies and the Professorial Academic Lead for the Languages and Cultures portfolio in the College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities at Adelaide University. She has held significant, long-term leadership roles at the disciplinary, faculty, and institutional levels, including Associate Dean (Student Experience, 2017–2024), Head of Department (Asian Studies, 2018–2024), Deputy Dean (People and Culture, 2024–2025), and an institutional Academic Lead for Professional Learning (DVCA, 2025). Kayoko is a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (Advance HE). She has served as lead editor for five volumes in the Learning in Higher Education series (Libri Publishing, UK). Kayoko is an executive member and former Secretary & Treasurer of the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU) National Committee. She is a member of the Multicultural Education and Languages Committee (MELC), a Ministerial Advisory Committee spanning the three schooling sectors and advising the South Australian Minister for Education. Kayoko received the 2025 Japanese Foreign Minister’s Award for her dedication to advancing the learning and teaching of the Japanese language in Australia.
Professor Yasmin Haskell FAHA
Yasmin Haskell FAHA is UNESCO Chair in Intercultural and Interreligious Relations at Monash University. She is a classicist by training, an early modern historian by practice, and a language education advocate by passion. Yasmin is currently leading an Australian Research Council project on the ‘Ancient Today: Living Traditions of Classical Language Pedagogy’, together with Academy fellows Michael Champion (ACU) and Joe Lo Bianco (Melbourne). Her UNESCO programme in ‘Glossanthropy’ (‘humanism of the tongue’) seeks to promote awareness of the embodied language arts as essential for human cognitive development, flourishing and intercultural competence. In recent decades, scholars have pursued various ‘post-humanist’ and ‘trans-humanist’ critical agendas with a view to correcting the blind-spots of the European Enlightenment, responding to the challenges of the climate crisis, and, more controversially, transcending our natural humanity through technoscientific intervention. With the advent of Large Language Model generative AI, however, we face a critical inflection point for our species. Not only do the LLMs pose a clear and present danger to language learning, they threaten human diversity and creativity by short-circuiting our capacity to ‘compose’ and individuate the self organically. The language arts were at the heart of Italian Renaissance humanism and a new generation of humanists must now work to ensure their survival. Yasmin is also a ‘shepherdess’ (pastorella) of the Academy of Arcadians and a fellow of the Academia Latinitati Fovendae (Rome).
Professor Kerry Mullan
Kerry Mullan is Professor of French Studies and Convenor of Languages at RMIT University, where she teaches French language and culture and applied linguistics. Her areas of expertise include intercultural communication, particularly intercultural pragmatics, and humour in French and Australian social interactions. Kerry also researches in the areas of language teaching and linguistic and semiotic landscapes in the French Pacific.
Liam Prince
Liam Prince is the Director of the Australian Consortium for ‘In-Country’ Indonesian Studies (Acicis) based at The University of Western Australia. He is an energetic advocate for Acicis and its mission to increase the number of Australian university students undertaking study in Indonesia. An Economics and Indonesian studies graduate from UWA, prior to commencing work for Acicis in 2012, Liam assisted in the formulation of a national plan for the future of Indonesian language studies in Australian universities.. Liam is a proud alumnus of both Acicis and DFAT’s Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program (AIYEP).
About our work
Australia's Asia Capability
Australia was once a leader in Asia Capability. For decades, Australians built a world-leading capacity to understand, speak and work with our neighbours. But that foundation has eroded.
Without coordinated, long-term investment in language learning, cultural understanding and regionally literate research, we risk becoming strangers in our own region.
The Academy has delivered landmark studies, such as Australia’s China Knowledge Capability (2023) and Mapping Australia’s Indonesia Research Capability (2024, with ACOLA), which show sharp declines in domestic student enrolments, research funding and institutional capacity across universities.
“Australia’s future is inseparable from Asia, but our national interests also require deep knowledge of cultures and societies across the world, alongside the protection and flourishing of Indigenous languages here at home.”
The Academy has delivered landmark studies, such as Australia’s China Knowledge Capability (2023) and Mapping Australia’s Indonesia Research Capability (2024, with ACOLA), which show sharp declines in domestic student enrolments, research funding and institutional capacity across universities.
Australia's China Knowledge Capability Report
Australia’s China Knowledge Capability report was developed as a resource for those with a stake in the China relationship across the university, government, corporate, and community sectors – to consider how Australia can best develop a long-term capability which adapts and adjusts with the changes in both Australia and China over coming decades.
Mapping Australia's Indonesia Research Capability
Mapping Australia’s Indonesia Research Capability examines the state of Indonesia Research Capability, seeks to better understand the current state of play, inform where both nations might look to build on existing strengths and make more of opportunities, including by understanding barriers to further collaboration.
International reports and studies
British Academy
The British Academy’s languages programme aims to monitor trends in languages education provision and mobilise expertise to inform debate about languages in education and society.
RAND Europe
A new study from RAND Europe and the University of Cambridge looked at how much the United Kingdom could gain if it spent a little more time learning other languages. If just 10 percent more students mastered Arabic, Mandarin, French, or Spanish, researchers found, the economic returns could be measured in billions of British pounds.
UNESCO
A 2025 UNESCO report calls for multilingual education to unlock learning and inclusion, highlighting 40 % of people globally lack access to education in the language they speak and understand fluently.
Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is the world’s most comprehensive database on the world’s living languages.
Research & evidence
Evidence shows, consistently, that learning a language is worthwhile—for our society, our communities and for ourselves. Language learning in schools is shown to promote social cohesion among young adults. Adults who learn a language later in life show improvements in brain function.
Bilingual schooling and language proficiency: policy considerations for Australia
Australia has long recognised the importance of language learning for cultural understanding, international engagement, multicultural recognition and vitality, and participation in the global economy. Yet despite decades of policy commitment, relatively few Australian students graduate with functional proficiency in a second language.
Multilingualism: A thriving or withering asset?
Australia’s multilingualism is fuelled, maintained, and diversified by migration flows but Census data indicates migrant communities struggle to pass on their languages to the next generation. Antonia Rubino FAHA, Associate Professor of Italian Studies, shows that the grandchildren of migrants are reclaiming their linguistic heritage and enhancing Australia’s language diversity.
Life in a new language
Life in a New Language examines the language learning and settlement experiences of 130 migrants to Australia from 34 different countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America over a period of 20 years. Reusing data shared from six separate sociolinguistic ethnographies, the book illuminates participants’ lived experience of learning and communicating in a new language, finding work, and doing family.
The impact of policy settings on language education in Australian schools: a comparative analysis of language enrolments and attrition in New South Wales and Victoria
This report explores the impact of language education policy on language enrolments and provision in primary and secondary government schools In Australia, specifically in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, which have strikingly different policy settings.
Language programming in rural and regional Victoria: Making space for local viewpoints in policy development
Despite decades of often ambitious policies in Australia, languages education is still characterized by intermittent commitment to the teaching of languages, with inequitable access particularly entrenched in rural and regional contexts. While research has focused on the practical and material constraints impacting on policy implementation, little research has investigated the role of the discursive terrain in shaping expectations and limitations around what seems achievable in schools, particularly, from the school principal perspective.
In the United States, Portland Public School students randomly assigned to dual-language immersion programs outperformed their peers on state reading tests by 13 percent of a standard deviation in grade 5 and by 22 percent of a standard deviation in grade 8.
Language Education and Language Ideologies in Australian Print Media
Shannon Mason & John Hajek FAHA
Applied Linguistics
December 2016
This study analyzed 261 Australian news articles (2007–2016) on language education, finding that the media predominantly frames language as a problem to be solved or an economic resource, while largely ignoring its value as a social resource or civic right. This narrow framing likely shapes public perceptions of language education and influences student engagement with the subject.
Language networks
Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities
LCNAU is a network that brings together individuals, language programs, university structures and tertiary institutions. It aims to strengthen the tertiary languages sector in Australia through advocacy, collaboration, research and support.
The Language Data Commons of Australia
The Language Data Commons of Australia makes nationally significant language data available for academic and non-academic use, and provides a model for ensuring continued access with appropriate community control.
First Languages Australia
First Languages Australia is the national peak body working to ensure the strength of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. We support a network of language centres, community programs and industry partners covering the whole of Australia, and all of our efforts are designed to have both immediate and longstanding impact on the future of our languages.
Language on the move
is a peer-reviewed sociolinguistics research site devoted to multilingualism, language learning, and intercultural communication in the contexts of globalization and migration. Language on the Move aims to disseminate sociolinguistic research to a broad global audience.
Contact
Contact the Australian Academy of the Humanities.