A History of Linguistics at UNE
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I. The Steve Johnson period (1986-1990)
Steve
Johnson was appointed to the university in 1986. An
outstanding descriptive and theoretical linguist with
very broad interests and a dynamic personality, Steve
was the founder of the discipline at UNE. In earlier
years, Bill Hoddinott of the old English Department
had done some significant linguistic research into Aboriginal
languages, and philology had been taught in the Classics
Department, but it was Steve Johnson who brought linguistics
in its modern form to UNE.
A Teaching Unit in Linguistics was established in 1987,
in the School of Modern Languages, and student numbers
quickly grew. In early 1988 Jeff Siegel joined the staff,
bringing expertise in sociolinguistics and language
contact studies. The university hosted the Annual Conference
of the Australian Linguistics Society.
The following year, Diana Eades was appointed to a half-time
position. Her interests were sociolinguistics, Aboriginal
English, language and the law. 1989 was also the year
in which Libby Fitzgerald, our invaluable admin person,
joined the Linguistics team. We’ve been blessed
to have Libby with us since and this continuity, coupled
with her detailed knowledge of all discipline matters,
has made her one of the lynchpins of Linguistics at
UNE.
As of 1988, a full degree program in Linguistics was
on offer. It was – and still is – the only
full undergraduate to postgraduate program available
by distance education in Australia.
1990 was an eventful year for Linguistics. Cliff Goddard
joined the staff early in year, with interests in Aboriginal
linguistics, grammatical description, and semantics;
and so did Janet Baldwin, who tutored in phonetics and
phonology, and in psycholinguistics. The Department
of Linguistics was officially established in 1990. It
was the year in which the first Honours student, Frances
Huchet, completed her degree.
Tragically however, this was also the year of Steve
Johnson’s death, which occurred on 27 August 1990.
His colleagues and students were devastated by this
sudden event, and at a practical level Steve’s
death left an enormous gap in the Linguistics program.
We were only able to continue due to tremendous support
from linguistic colleagues around Australia.
II. Stabilisation and consolidation (1991–1995)
Over
the next few years, Linguistics managed to stabilise
and consolidate. Helen Fraser joined the staff in September
1990, bringing her interests in phonetics, phonology,
and the philosophy of linguistics. Nick Reid came on
board in January 1991, with a strong background in Aboriginal
linguistics, grammatical description, typology and universals.
Janet Baldwin left in January 1994. Jean Harkins joined
the Department on a half-time research/teaching position.
A Phonetics Laboratory was developed over 1991-94, and
the Steve Johnson Library established. Teaching links
were built up with psychology and philosophy. A long
struggle was commenced to secure a Chair in Linguistics.
III. Professor Anne Pauwels (Sept 1995–June 1998)
In
September 1995 Prof. Anne Pauwels was appointed as Foundation
Chair in Linguistics at UNE. She had an outstanding
background in sociolinguistics, language and gender
studies, community languages, and applied linguistics.
She also had excellent management skills, which were
much needed as universities around the country began
to experience funding and other difficulties due to
government policies. Anne helped organise the incorporation
of Linguistics into the current School of Languages,
Cultures and Linguistics, of which she was the first
Head. She left the university in June 1998.
Two landmarks occurred in 1997. Linguistics UNE hosted
the Australian Linguistics Society Annual Conference
for the second time; and this was also the year of our
first PhD completion, Michael Cooke’s (1998) study
of Anglo-Yolngu miscommunication in legal contexts.
IV. The late Nineties (June 1998–2000)
After Anne Pauwels’ departure, funding constraints made it impossible to immediately re-appoint a Chair in Linguistics. There were some staff changes on account of permanent staff going on leave for various projects:
- Jennifer Peck taught with us between September 1998 and Dec 1999, bringing her valued expertise in sociolinguistics, especially in the area of language, gender and power studies.
- Jean Harkins took up a post as an ARC Research Fellow in 1997, but taught on a full-time basis in 1996 and in 1999. Her background included cross-cultural communication and semantics, as well as language typology. She subsequently moved to Newcastle University.
- Michael Dunn was on staff here for a year in 1998 and made a valuable contribution to teaching.
- Diana Eades resigned from UNE in July 1999 to take up a post at University of Hawai‘i, after ten years of invaluable service. (Five years later Diana re-joined the UNE discipline as an Honorary Fellow.)
- Anna Ash was a Research Fellow in Linguistics in 1999-2000, mostly working on the Gamilaraay/Yuwaalaraay dictionary project
In 2000 Nick Reid received the Vice-Chancellor’s
Award for Excellence in Teaching.
V. The early MAAL years (2001-2003)
In
July 2001, after two years preparatory work, we opened
the doors on the MAAL - our fully online Master of Arts
in Applied Linguistics. This is a 1-year full-time or
2-year part-time coursework degree that uses web technology
to deliver state-of-the-art content materials. All assessment
tasks and all interaction with fellow students and staff
are conducted online. Within its first year, the MAAL
had almost 100 students enrolled, many of them involved
in teaching ESL, either in Australia or in many other
countries around the world. The first cohort of graduates
received their degrees in 2003. Developing the MAAL
degree signalled a new positioning of our discipline.
IN many ways, postgraduate level applied linguistics
became the core of our teaching program.
Over this busy period, we also had various staffing
changes
- Karen Woodman took up the position of inaugural Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics in late 2001. Karen came from Vancouver, Canada, bringing broad expertise in applied linguistics.
- Jeff Siegel went on a fractional appointment for some years to allow him to take up a position as Director of the Charlene Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole and Dialect Studies at the University of Hawai’i.
- Brett Baker joined us in February 2002. His strengths in formal phonology and morphology, as well in Aboriginal linguistics, were an important addition to the discipline.
- Andrea Schalley joined us in 2003 from Munich, Germany, initially as a Research Fellow in Cognitive Linguistics on the Vice-Chancellors Research Fellowship Scheme, and subsequently as a ARC Postdoctoral Fellow.
- In 2002 Cliff Goddard received the VC’s Award for Excellence in Research. In 2004 he was promoted to full Professor (Level E), with the result that Linguistics once again has a Chair in Linguistics.
VI.
Recent years (2004-)
Recent
years have seen important initiatives both in research and in teaching. In research,
there has been the development of the Language
and Cognition Research Centre, in cooperation with colleagues in psychology,
archaeology and philosophy. Many research activities (seminars, workshops, conferences,
bringing distinguished scholars to UNE) have been organised under the auspices
of the Centre, whose origins go back several years. One "stand out"
event was the International Language and Cognition Conference, held at Coffs
Harbour in 2004. The LCRC is organising the national Australian Linguistics
Institute in Brisbane in July 2006.
In the teaching arena, Linguistics UNE has continued
to make the most of technological developments to enhance
our distance education teaching. As well as devising
numerous multimedia and web-based resources, we have
invested heavily in onlining most of our undergraduate
and postgraduate units. We have transformed the experience
of our distance education students, by giving them a
wide range of content (including graphics and audio),
unit-specific resources (such as IPA fonts for the web,
searchable glossaries, tree drawing tools, etc,) and
a sense of connectedness (through instant feedback on
assignments, daily communication with staff, etc). The
online MA in Applied Linguistics continues to go from
strength to strength, with nearly 200 students currently
studying in the degree program.
The discipline was delighted when Sophie Nicholls, one
of our PhD candidates, received a prestigious Fulbright
Scholarship in 2006, to enable her to spend a half-year
studying in the USA.
Staffing developments in recent years have included:
- Liz Ellis joined us in 2004, with valuable expertise in applied linguistics and bilingualism studies.
- In Semester II 2005 and Sem I 2006, Gavin Austin taught in applied linguistic subjects, while Karen Woodman spent a year as a Visiting Fellow at the Monterey Language Institute, California.
- Dorothea Cogill spent a year as Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Linguistics in 2005, after Andrea Schalley changed hats, to become an ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Dorothea continued in a teaching position for part of 2006.
- Jeff Siegel retired after 15 years of invaluable service, but he quickly rejoined as an Honorary Research Fellow and continues to contribute to the research environment.