Dr Clair Hill

Position

Postdoctoral Fellow

Biography

Dr Clair Hill is a researcher within the Speech and Language Program in MARCS. Clair received her PhD in Linguistics in 2018 awarded jointly from Radboud University (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) and the University of Leuven.

Prior to and throughout her PhD work, Clair participated in a number of team-based collaborative projects on cross-cultural variation in semantics, language documentation and language revitalisation. In connection with this collaborative research, she held research positions and research affiliations with Macquarie University 2003-2004, 2006), University of Leuven (2006-2009, 2010-2012), Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (2007-2012), University of Sydney (2015-2017), and Lund University (2014-). Clair has also worked closely with Aboriginal communities supporting local needs for language documentation and language revitalisation (Katherine Language Centre (2001), Lockhart River Aboriginal Council and Lockhart River Arts and Cultural Centre (various projects spanning: 2003, 2004-2005, 2006-2009, 2010-2013), Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (2014-2016).

Research Interests

Clair’s research explores cross-cultural and individual variation in semantics and storytelling. It is based on long-term fieldwork on Australian languages, especially Paman languages (Umpila and Kuuku Ya’u) of north-eastern Cape York Peninsula. There are two central threads in her work: an exploration of the interaction between language, cognition and culture, and collaborating with communities to translate this research into useful language documentary and revitalisation products.

• Australian Aboriginal Languages
• Semantic Typology
• Interactional Linguistics
• Narrative
• Language Revitalisation
• Child Language Acquisition

Qualifications and Honours

• PhD Linguistics, Radboud University (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) and University of Leuven 2018.
• B.A. with Honours, University of Sydney 2001.

Publications

For a list of my publications, please see my Google Scholar page. (opens in a new window)

Contact