Catherine Travis

Biography

Catherine Travis is a variationist sociolinguist whose research addresses the ways in which linguistic and social factors impact language variation and change, in particular in socially diverse communities. She has conducted large-scale projects applying quantitative methods to the study of spontaneous speech data from English and Spanish, and in monolingual and bilingual communities. Most recently, she has been undertaking a longitudinal project examining Australian English as spoken by ethnically diverse communities across Sydney (Sydney Speaks). Catherine is an Associate Editor on the premier journal on language in Australia and the region, the Australian Journal of Linguistics, and serves on the editorial board of the flagship journal, Language Variation and Change.

Catherine completed her undergraduate degree in Linguistics and Japanese at the ANU (1993), and her PhD in Linguistics and Spanish at La Trobe University (2002). She worked for 10 years at the University of New Mexico, USA, in Linguistics and Spanish, prior to returning to the ANU in 2012 to take up the role of Professor of Modern European Languages. She is a NAATI-certified translator, SpanishEnglish, and is currently a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language.