About me

I am a middle-aged hearing white cisgender man with English as his first language who has, and continues to benefit from, all the privileges associated with these characteristics. I am Australian, born in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia, to working-class parents, in lands traditionally owned by the Darug people. I also have Maltese citizenship, as my father was a Maltese immigrant, and I was exposed to both Maltese and French (my paternal grandmother's first language) growing up, although I mastered neither.  My father, uncle, and aunt code-switched frequently (when talking to my grandparents particularly) between English and Maltese. None of their Australian-born children (myself included) acquired Maltese fluency, however, probably reflecting internalised negative attitudes towards Maltese in the Australian context. I did study French when I went to university, however. My Maltese citizenship means that I am also a citizen of the European Union, which is how I moved to the UK, before Brexit. I am a gay man, and have been out all my adult life, and experienced first-hand the many changes in human rights won by gay and lesbian people since the 1980s. I support the rights of all sexual minorities, together with trans and non-binary people, as part of the LGBT+ umbrella.  I am an encephalitis survivor, and I have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I am still coming to terms with an understanding of myself as neurodivergent. I was the first in my immediate family to complete an undergraduate university degree - in fact, the first to complete senior high school. I majored in English Literature and worked as an English teacher in schools and community colleges for several years before starting my PhD. During that time, I also studied Auslan (the majority sign language of the Australian deaf community) for three years at a vocational college and trained as an Auslan/English interpreter. My interest in this area arose from a relationship of many years with a hearing man with deaf parents (a 'CODA'). I completed a PhD in linguistics at the University of Sydney in 2002. I worked at the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of Bristol (2000-2002), at the Renwick Centre (2003-2004), and Macquarie University (2005), before spending time at DCAL in London (2006-2010).  I got my first permanent post in academia in 2011 at La Trobe University in Melbourne. I am now a professor in linguistics at the University of Birmingham, and have spent around 15 years living in the UK. I have gained some fluency in British Sign Language from working and socialising with British deaf people during that time, and I completed a BSL Level 6 course with The Sign Life in 2024. After nearly three decades of working with deaf people, I am still constantly learning and reflecting on my attempts to be a hearing ally. 

I think many of these facts are important for an understanding of my positionality as a researcher. For example, I believe my family's multilingualism inspired an interest in languages and linguistics. My specific interest in sign languages developed out my relationship with a hearing signer, and his connections to the deaf community gave me opportunies to meet people I may not have otherwise had. As a gay man, I found the deaf LGBT+ community particularly welcoming when I began learning to sign. LGBT+ spaces also have always provided a venue for building closer links with other LGBT+ academics, both deaf and hearing –networking after many conferences sometimes leads to a gay bar. My ADHD diagnosis has had me reflecting in a new way on my own ableism, and becoming a student of BSL again has reminded me of the important contribution linguistics research can make to sign language teaching.