Conference Speakers

Prof. John Hajek

Professor of Linguistics

University of Melbourne

John Hajek is Head of the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne where he is also Professor of Italian, and Director of the Research Unit for Multilingualism and Cross-cultural Communication (RUMACCC). He has a broad range of research interests and has published widely across different areas of linguistics and applied linguistics, including multilingualism, language description and language education.

Dr. Fabrice Wacalie

Researcher in Language Education

University of New Caledonia

Fabrice Wacalie is a lecturer and researcher at the Institut supérieur du professorat et de l’éducation (INSPE) of the University of New Caledonia (UNC). He holds a PhD in Asian-Pacific Studies with a specialization in Oceanian linguistics from INALCO (Paris), and is affiliated with the Human and Social Sciences Research Unit at UNC. His work focuses on the morphosyntactic description of Kanak languages and their didactic adaptation for teaching in both primary and secondary education in New Caledonia. More broadly, he works on the recognition and inclusion of Indigenous knowledge, on acknowledging the variations of New Caledonian French, and on implementing language-awareness programs in schools.