Celeste Rodriguez Louro

I am Chair of the Linguistics Discipline, Director of Language Lab, and Deputy Chair of the Generative AI Think Tank at The University of Western Australia. I am an elected member of the Board of the Graduate Research School. I am also an Australian English / Aboriginal English consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary, lead a major research parternship with Google, and presented, between 2022 and 2024, Language Lab on RTRFM, a Linguistics segment which won the 2023 Talkley Award by the Australian Linguistic Society. I have recently been awarded the 2025 ISLE Linguistics Outreach Prize and a Visiting Research Fellowship to spend Hilary term (January-March 2026) at All Souls College, University of Oxford.

2025 ‘The Yarning Corpus: Aboriginal English in southwest WA’. Sydney Corpus Lab, University of Sydney, October 2025.

2025 ‘Change the tech, not the speaker: Aboriginal English and Indigenous futures’. Department of Linguistics, Monash University, October 2025.

2025 ‘Aboriginal English Voices: Improving speech technologies for Indigenous users’. Science Catalyst Event, Google Sydney, 19 September 2025, (with Glenys Collard and Ben Hutchinson).

2025 ‘Outreach with impact: Linguistics in the public sphere’. Invited presentation at 2025 ISLE Conference, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, 1-4 September 2025.

2025 ‘Linguistics in action: Making voice-operated tech more inclusive’. Invited keynote presentation at AI in Action: From theory to practice, University Club of WA, Perth, Australia, 13 June 2025.

2025 ‘AI has a language problem’ invited panel provocation at the AI Policy Taboos series, UWA Policy Institute and Forrest Research Foundation evening series, Forrest Foundation, Perth, Australia, 11 June 2025. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7LLrwM2WQ

2025 ‘Know Thyself: Remaining critical in the age of AI’. Invited guest lecture, AI Club and Philosophy, Politics and Economic Union, Reid Library, UWA, 19 May 2025.

2025 ‘The AI landscape: Navigating changes in work, education, and society’. Invited panel presentation at the Autumn General Meeting of UWA’s Convocation, UWA, Perth, Australia, 20 March 2025. Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/event/4796698/ec92ac257b

2025 ‘Aboriginal English Voices’. Project launch presentation at Google Research, Sydney, Australia, 18 February 2025 (with Ben Hutchinson and Glenys Collard).

2025 ‘Developing Language Technologies for Australian Aboriginal English: A Case Study of Integrating Participatory Approaches’. Plenary paper presented at Participatory AI Research & Practice Symposium. Paris, France, 30 January 2025 (with Ben Hutchinson, Glenys Collard and Ned Cooper)

2024 'Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Higher Education’. Invited panel presentation at the 2024 Early and Mid-Career Researcher Network Symposium, Edith Cowan University, Australia, 21 November 2024.

2024 ‘From spark to flame: Designing culturally safe medical media for First Nations people in Australia’. Invited presentation at the Aboriginal Health Conference, Fremantle by Rydges, Fremantle, Australia, 10-11 August 2024 (with Glenys Collard).

2024 ‘Hearing the voices: Embracing diversity in the study of language in society’. Invited plenary presentation at the 2024 Symposium of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), Melbourne, Australia, 27-29 June (with Glenys Collard).

2024 ‘Cycles of Australian Aboriginal English’. Invited Colloquium at Sociolinguistics Symposium 25, June 24-27 2024 (with Glenys Collard).

2024 ‘Decolonising sociolinguistics: The view from Australia’. Invited lecture. University of Cologne, Germany, 2 February 2024.

2024 ‘Decolonizing the introductory linguistics curriculum’. Poster presentation at the 2024 Modern Languages Association (MLA) Annual Convention, 4-7 January 2024, Philadelphia, USA (with Amanda Hamilton-Hollaway and Ewan O’Brien).

2023 What does it really mean to be culturally and linguistically diverse? Invited seminar for the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Working Group, UWA, 19 October 2023.

2023 Invited workshop. ‘Working together to reduce inequality’. Invited workshop at the 32nd Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association’s Annual Scientific Meeting. Perth, Western Australia, July 31 to the August 2, 2023 (with Glenys Collard).

2022 Public Lecture Presenter. 'Two to tango: Language as a gateway to championing diversity'. UNESCO Activation Week. UWA Crawley campus. 11 October 2022.

2022 Public Lecture Presenter. 'Two to tango: Language as a gateway to championing diversity'. WA Museum Boola Bardip. 11 September 2022. https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/boolabardip/two-tango-language-gateway-championing-diversity

2022 Keynote speaker. ‘Decolonising sociolinguistics: Australian Aboriginal English into the next decade’. International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE) Summer School 2022, Newcastle University, England, 4-8 July 2022 (with Glenys Collard).

2022 Keynote speaker. ‘Sustainable Linguistics: Inclusion, collaboration and making our field a safer place'. Nordic Sustainable Linguistics Group, Roskilde, Denmark, 23 May 2022.

2022 Keynote speaker. ‘Australian Aboriginal English’. Oxford World English Symposium. Oxford University, England, 12-13 April 2022 (with Glenys Collard).

2022 Speaker. ‘Language, diversity and inclusion’. Grand Challenges Summit. University of Western Australia, 23 February 2022.

2021 Keynote speaker. ‘The soul of language: Discourse-pragmatic variation and change in urban Aboriginal English’. Discourse Pragmatic Variation and Change 5 (DiPVaC 5) University of Melbourne. December 2021, in collaboration with Glenys Collard.

2021 Keynote speaker. Culturally and Linguistically Different (CaLD) backgrounds women in academia. Organised by Sender Dovchin (Curtin), funded by the WA Department of Communities.

2020 Panel member. ‘Outreach is a thing! Bringing linguistics to WA classrooms’. 2020 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, online. 14 & 15 December 2020, online.

2020 Panel member. ‘How.to.get.funded’, NEXT GEN panel at the 2020 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, online. 14 & 15 December 2020. With Ilana Mushin, Felicity Meakins, John Mansfield, Maia Ponsonnet and Ruth Singer, online.

2020 Speaker. ‘Linguistics reaching out to communities’. 9 November 2020. University of Birmingham, England.

2020 Panel member. ‘Linguists and educators versus the monolingual mindset’. At the Tipping Point: Communication, (Corpus) Linguistics and (Linguistic) Education. International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English Conference (ICAME41). Heidelberg University, Germany, 20-24 May 2020.

2019 Panel member. ‘Real and apparent time’. Language across Time. The 24^th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Australian National University, Canberra. 1-5 July 2019.

Principal Investigator, Aboriginal English Voices, Google Australia, 2023-2026 (with Glenys Collard and Ben Hutchinson).

Chair of the local organising committee, 2026 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, University Club of WA, UWA

Editorial Board Member, Australian Journal of Linguistics, 2022-2027.

Consultant, Oxford English Dictionary, 2022-

Co-founder and co-organiser, Language Variation and Change, Australia 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. With Catherine Travis, Adam Schembri / James Walker / Matthew Callaghan. 2013-2025.

Consultant, Australian National Dictionary, 2022

Consultant, Catholic Education Western Australia, 2022-2024

Vice-president, Australian Linguistic Society, 2018-2023.

Secretary, Australian Linguistic Society, 2023.

Organiser, 'Decolonisation, inclusion and collaboration in Linguistics'. Special session organised for the 2021 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, 6-9 December 2021. With Lesley Woods, Jakelin Troy, Ruth Singer, Felicity Meakins and Alice Gaby.

Organiser, first online conference of the Australian Linguistic Society! ALS 2020 Building Bridges. https://als.asn.au/Conference/Conference2020, with Rob Mailhammer (Western Sydney University) and Gerry Docherty (Griffith University), December 2020.

Organiser, Understanding Language: a professional development day for primary and secondary school teachers, in collaboration with WA Department of Education and UWA Linguistics. UWA Perth Campus, 28 September 2019, 28 November 2020, 19 February 2022.

I am a NAATI accredited English-Spanish translator (NAATI accreditation ASCO 2529-15). I also hold an Acreditación de examinadores DELE: Niveles B1 y B2 from Instituto Cervantes in Sydney, Australia.

Google. Australian Aboriginal English Voices. Sponsored Research Contract. 2023-2026. $2.2-million dollars.

Australian Linguistic Society Research Grant 2025, $5,000. (With Glenys Collard).

Modern Language Association (MLA) Humanities Innovation Grants. Decolonizing the Introductory Linguistics Curriculum. (With Amanda Hamilton-Hollaway). USD 3,000 (AUD 4,478). (Capacity building Ewan O’Brien, UWA Linguistics Major), 2023-2024.

Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA). Winner of public tender for project titled "Review of Making the Jump", a paper-based and digital resource aimed at teaching First Nations students in Australia. $381,838.50; 2022-2024.

Australian Research Council (ARC), Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA). Aboriginal English in the global city: Do minorities participate in surrounding language change?; DE170100493; 17% success rate; $350,000, 2018-2022.

UWA School of Social Sciences, Research Support Grants, $23,000, 2023.

Language Data Commons of Australia, ARDC, Australian Data Partnerships 2020, with Michael Haugh (lead); partners: S. Musgrave, C. Travis, N. Thieberger, L. Holcombe, A. Lissarrague, D. Angus, M. Bednarek, F. Cox, J. Simpson, N. Evans, F. Baisden, B. Foley, A. Harvey, J. Troy, J. Rose, K. Brass, R. Dale, A. Bell, F.de Jong, A. Witt, . $525,000, 2021-2022.

Australian Linguistic Society (ALS) Research Grant. Yarning and language change. (With Glenys Collard), $4,935, 2019.

Australian Linguistic Society (ALS). Indigenous Conference Attendance Support, Conference of the ALS, $750, 2019.

UWA, School of Social Sciences, Research support Grants, $9,500, 2019.

[MATERNITY LEAVE]

UWA, School of Social Sciences, Staff Travel Grant, $1,000; 2015, 2016.

UWA, 2015 Research Collaboration Award; research grant for project entitled “The voices in the stories: Quotation in Aboriginal English oral narratives” in collaboration with Farzad Sharifian (Monash University), $14,542; 2014.

Perth Convention Bureau, 2013 Aspire University Professional Development Award, $5000; 2013.

Australian Academy of the Humanities, 2013 Publication Subsidy Award, $2,000; 2013.

UWA, 2013 Research Collaboration Award; research grant for project entitled “Narratives from the past: Quotation across time in Australian, Canadian and New Zealand English” in collaboration with Alexandra D’Arcy (University of Victoria, Canada) and Sali Tagliamonte (University of Toronto), $17,500; 2012.

UWA, Supplementary Travel Grant; $750; 2012.

UWA, 2012 Research Development Awards; research grant for project entitled “A sociolinguistic study of syntactic variation and change in Australian English”, $35,348; 2011.

Programme for Cultural Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture of Spain and the Australian National University (ANU), research and conference grant for project entitled “Global, sexy and fun: Attitudes to Spanish language learning by Australian university students”; $3000; 2011.

UWA, School of Humanities, Staff Research Travel Grant, $2,000; 2011.

UWA, Supplementary Travel Grant; $750; 2011.

UM (University of Melbourne), Grants-in-Aid, “Exploiting bilingualism: The Melbourne Language Exchange Group”; $1,896; 2010 (Declined).

ARC Network in Human Communication Science, HCSNet WinterFest Scholarship, $1,200; 2010.

Australian Federal Government, Department of Education, Science and Training: International Fee Remission Scholarship; full tuition fee coverage for duration of course and annual Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC); $22,400 p.a.; 2005–2009.

La Trobe University, Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, registration fee waiver, 2009.

UM, Scholarships office and School of Languages and Linguistics: Melbourne International Research Scholarship; $19,425 p.a.; 2005–2008.

UM, Faculty of Arts: Lillian Ernestine Lobb Scholarship, one scholarship awarded annually to a female postgraduate with excellent academic records (on the recommendation of the Dean of the Arts Faculty), $12,000; 2008.

UM, School of Languages and Linguistics: Matching funding support, $600; 2008.

UM, Faculty of Arts: Travel for research in postgraduate study, $1,350; 2008.

UM, School of Languages and Linguistics: Conference attendance support scheme, $500; 2007.

UM, Faculty of Arts: PhD Fieldwork Support Scheme, $3,900; 2006.

UM, School of Languages: Conference attendance support scheme, $750; 2006.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese: Full tuition, partial fee waiver (USD 21,714 p.a.) and teaching assistantship; 2002–2004.

I am an award-winning teacher. I have been nominated 21 times in 2011-2024. My most recent awards include two UWA Arts Teaching Excellence Awards, 2014 and 2017 and a 2021 Social Sciences Teaching Award for our team teaching at UWA Linguistics. I have led significant curriculum redevelopment inititatives, including the decolonisation of first year linguistics units, funded through a competitive 2023 Humanities Innovation Grant by US-based Modern Languages Association. I have designed and proposed LING 2000 Language and Artificial Intelligence to be taught for the first time in semester 2, 2026.

Units I have taught at UWA:

LING 1002 Language as a Cognitive System (1st year; tutor)

LING 2008 How Language Shapes Society (2nd year; co-taught with Luisa Miceli and Maia Ponsonnet)

LING 4103 Methods in Linguistic Research (4th year/Honours)

LING 1001 Language and Communication (1st year)

LING 3003 Historical Linguistics: Language History and Language Change (3rd year)

LING 1901 Language Learning and the Multilingual World (Broadening)

LING 2003 Language, Culture and Society (2nd year)

LING 3006 Topics in Linguistic Theory (3rd year)

LING 4103 Methods in Sociolinguistics: Time (4th year/Honours)

LING 4104 Advanced Topics in Semantics and Pragmatics (co-taught with John Henderson and Sophie Richard)

LING 3312 Linguistic Field Methods: Methods in Sociolinguistics (3rd year)

LING 1103 Language, Culture and Society (1st year)

PHD STUDENT SUPERVISION

Katharina Froedrich. 2024-2027. Aboriginal English in the Pilbara. (Co-supervised with Luisa Miceli and Sally Dixon [University of New England]). I mentored Katharina through the process of obtaining a highly competitive Forrest fellowship (4% success rate). She is currently a Forrest Scholar.

Lucia Fraiese. 2022-2026. Outta country: Indigenous youth identities in an Australian boarding school. (Co-supervised with Luisa Miceli and Emma Moore [Sheffield University]). 

Madeleine Clews. 2025. 'our own familiar English': A historical sociolinguistic study of the shaping of Australian English through the lens of Western Australia. (Co-supervised with Luisa Miceli and Kate Burridge [Monash University, Australia]).

Connor Brown. 2024. Diachronic perspectives on the semantics of temporal systems in Kununurra Kriol. (Co-supervised with Marie-Eve Ritz and Maia Ponsonnet [French National Centre for Scientific Research]). Now Early Years Development Officer at Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring Language and Culture Centre, Kununurra, Western Australia.

Sophie Richard. 2018. Tense/aspect variation and the Present Perfect in Australian English narratives: Sociolinguistic constraints and discourse-pragmatic functions. Now a permanent Lecturer at the University of Tours, France.

HONOURS SUPERVISION

Lucia Fraiese. That’s the way we do it, unna: Utterance-final tags in Aboriginal English and Australian English, 2021. [First class honours].

Madeleine Clews. Mining the archives: A study of the diachrony of quotation in Australian Aboriginal English, 2020. [First class honours].

Gemma Lorisso. Zooming with the cousins: Narrative structure and quotation across generations of Australian English speech, 2020. [First class honours].

Daniel Ortlepp. I have seen xem: Queerness and online pronominal innovation in English, 2016. [First class honours].

Sana Bharadwaj. Ethnic orientation and language use: Expressing opinions in Australian and Indian English, 2013. [First class honours].

Rachael Howard. 'Story gets better’: Performed narratives and quotatives across social classes in Australian English speech, 2012. [First class honours].

Chelsea Hayes. American girls and Aussie guys? Attitudes to BE LIKE and GO in Australian English, 2012. [First class honours].

Harry Midalia. The social evaluation of epistemic RECKON: Speaker attitudes and social constraints, 2011 [First class honours].

Caroline Dixon. I was like, 'Definitely Aussie'. BE LIKE and other quotatives across generations in Australian English, 2011

EXTERNAL SUPERVISION AND EXAMINATION

Heba Bou Orm, Language and Ethnicity: Epistemic marking in Australian English and the Lebanese identity. Master of General and Applied Linguistics (Advanced). Supervised by Catherine Travis. The Australian National University, Australia, 2022.

Soledad Álvarez, Los pasados perfectos y la textualidad en el siglo XIX en el español del Uruguay [Past perfects and discourse in Uruguayan Spanish in the 19^th century]. Supervised by Carlos Henderson. Master’s thesis, Universidad de la República, Uruguay, 2021.

Susanne Hüber. Acquiring a variable system: The English quotative system and be like in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. University of Graz and UWA, 2016.

Sociolinguistics, participatory methods, speech technologies, human-centred AI, Aboriginal English, grammaticalisation; morpho-syntactic and discourse-pragmatic variation and change; quotation; epistemic verbs; preterit/present perfect; temporal reference; tense variation; narrative; variationist sociolinguistics; historical sociolinguistics; Anglo-Celtic Australian English; Argentinian Spanish; Latin American Spanish.

Decolonisation / collaboration / inclusion / diversity / leadership / sustainability.

Argentinian Spanish (L1 speaker)
English (fluent)
Polish (good)
Portuguese (fair)