Dr. Carmel O Shannessy

Biography

Carmel O’Shannessy is an Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at the Australian National University. She received the ANU Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2020 for her work on language contact, acquisition, and documentation of Indigenous languages. O’Shannessy has a diverse background in linguistics, having worked as an ESL teacher and an applied linguist in remote Indigenous schools in Australia’s Northern Territory focusing on Indigenous language maintenance and education. She completed her PhD in Linguistics at the University of Sydney and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands in 2007, where her research focused on the documentation and genesis of Light Warlpiri, a mixed language that emerged in her community. Her research interests include language contact and change, language acquisition, and bilingualism. Currently, she is involved in projects evaluating English language learning for Indigenous children and is supervising several research students in these areas.

Research Interests

Experience