Professor Anne-Marie Morgan, Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education, has been appointed to the eminent Advisory Board of the ARC Centre for Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. The Centre, funded over a seven-year period, with nodes of research at four Australian universities, including an extensive post-doc and HDR research program, investigates language as a diverse, dynamic and evolving organism that interacts with  perceptual processes in ingenious ways. The researchers aim to understand why the world’s languages are designed so differently—and how our minds acquire and exploit them to achieve different outcomes—to help generate important scientific insights and exciting new technologies.

Prof. Morgan’s interest in language is reflected in her membership of several influential associations. She is President of the peak national umbrella association for teachers of languages, the AFMLTA,  promotes languages teaching in universities as a member of LCNAU , and is Vice President of the Northern NSW Regional Council of Australian Literacy Educators’ Association.  She was the recipient of a UNE teaching award for her languages teacher education model in 2016 and of an AALT national teaching award in 2017. She is currently advising on introducing primary languages teaching specialisations in teaching degrees through the NSW Council of Deans of Educations, and representing the NSW Academic Senates on the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) expert Advisory Committee. She is also researching an online curriculum for Indonesian for primary school students with the Western Australian Department of Education and Education Services Australia.