Congratulations to Language-on-the-Move team member Dr Laura Smith-Khan, who is the winner of the 2022 Australian Academy of the Humanities’ Max Crawford Medal!
The medal is considered Australia’s most prestigious award for achievement and promise in the humanities. Laura’s research explores, uncovers and addresses inequality at the intersections of language, diversity and participation in legal settings, with a particular focus on migration processes.
The medal is awarded to an early career academic “whose research and published work have made and continue to make an exceptional contribution to the understanding of their discipline by the general public.” Being recognized for this award is significant for the Language-on-the-Move community, as Laura regularly shares her research through our research blog, as well as in other non-traditional forms, such as Twitter posts, to ensure that the key messages of her work reach members of the public in Australia and overseas. Over the years, these activities have helped her work reach diverse international and Australian audiences, with tangible results. To date, her (currently) 17 research blog posts have been read over 50,000 times and have led to multiple international collaborations.
Laura’s research shifts the focus away from the attributes of social minorities (e.g., migrants and people with disabilities), which have framed individuals as deficient or problematic. Instead, her research explores the effects of overarching structures (e.g., law, policy, and social norms) and the practices of majority actors on how minorities are able to enjoy their rights and participate in society. To this end, she applies critical linguistic and interdisciplinary scholarship and methodologies to legal research. Laura emphasizes communicating her research in accessible formats, to inform lawmaking, legal practice and legal education, with the ultimate goal of improving access to justice and overcoming inequality.
Laura speaks during the award ceremony (Image credit: Lachlan Phyland)
To meet her goal of developing law-and-linguistics interdisciplinary research, Laura’s efforts stretch well beyond her individual research and publishing. She is a highly motivated future research leader and collaborator. In 2019, she co-founded the Law and Linguistics Interdisciplinary Researchers’ Network, which currently has almost 200 members, from several countries. Members range from undergraduate students, through senior scholars, to legal practitioners, audiologists, interpreters, and a former Australian Federal Court judge.
Laura was formally awarded the Max Crawford Medal at the 53rd Annual Symposium of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, devoted to “Citizenship, Diaspora & Belonging,” which took place from 17-18 November 2022 in Ballarat, Victoria.
Receiving the Max Crawford Medal has already led to a number of opportunities for Laura to further share her research expertise with the broader public, including through a number of media interviews, and an invitation from a respected legal organization which works with linguistic and cultural minority groups.
Congratulations again, Laura!
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Thanks very much for your support, Ingrid! Being a LOTM member has played such a big role in my achievements to date and I’m very thankful for this fantastic online global community!