School of Languages and Cultures

PhD, MA in Communication Disorders (Macquarie); MAPPCP (East London); GradDip in Learning and Teaching (Griffith); BCogSci (UWA)

Nobuaki completed his PhD in Cognitive Science at Macquarie University, specialising in language acquisition. His research interests focus on second language acquisition, technology-enhanced language learning and teaching, and the application of positive psychology in language education. Prior to teaching at the University of Sydney, he taught Japanese language at UNSW and Macquarie University.

BA (Hons)/BMus (Adelaide), MTS (Harvard), PhD (Sydney)

Dr Avril Alba is Professor of Holocaust Studies and Jewish Civilisation in Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies and Head of the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney. She teaches and researches in the broad areas of Holocaust and modern Jewish history with a focus on Jewish and Holocaust museums. Her monograph, The Holocaust Memorial Museum: Sacred Secular Space, was published in 2015. From 2002 to 2011 Avril was the Education Director at the Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM). She has also served as the Project Director/Consulting Curator for the SJM permanent exhibitions 'Culture and Continuity' (2009), 'The Holocaust' (2017), and 'The Holocaust and Human Rights' (2018), the latter being a major output of her Linkage project 'The Holocaust, Human Rights and the Contemporary Museum'. She is currently working on an ARC Discovery project, 'The Memory of the Holocaust in Australia' and an ARC Linkage Project 'Evaluating the Impact of Holocaust Museum Education'.

Dr Ali Yunis Aldahesh (Orcid.org/0000-0002-7179-742X) is a Lecturer in Arabic Language, Literature and Culture at The University of Sydney, Department of Arabic Language and Cultures, School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dr Aldahesh joined the University of Sydney in February 2011. He worked before that at the Australian National University (ANU) for three years as a Lecturer in Arabic at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (Middle East and Central Asia). He holds a PhD in Translation and Linguistics, an MA in Translation and Linguistics, and an MA in Semitic Studies. Dr Aldahesh’s area of research interest is translation and linguistics with special emphasis on the language, text, and translation of the Qur’an. His published works include:

• The (Un)Translatability of the Qur’anic Idiomatic Phrasal Verbs: A Contrastive Linguistic Study. Routledge. UK. 2022.
• English Translations of the Qur’an: A Descriptive Comparative Study in their Aspects of Disagreement. Cairo: Hala Publishing,2020.
• Translating Idiomatic English Phrasal Verbs into Arabic: A Contrastive Linguistic Study. VDM, Germany, 2009.
• The Concept of Taqwa in the Qur’an as understood by Muslim commentators(In Arabic). Ray Publishing, Syria, Aleppo, 2010.
• al-Raḥīl Ṣawba al-Māʾ ‘TravellingTowards Water’. A book of short stories (In Arabic). WSU, Sydney, 2007.

Mark Allon teaches Sanskrit and other ancient languages of South Asia (Pali and Gandhari) and Buddhist and Asian studies. His primary research interests are the composition and transmission of early Buddhist literature, the ways in which texts have been used by Buddhist communities, and the Indic languages of early Buddhist texts (Pali, Gandhari, Sanskrit).

PhD (Warwick); MA (Warwick); BA (Catania).

Giorgia Alù completed a PhD in comparative literature at the University of Warwick (UK). Her research interests range from Italian cultural history to comparative literature and visual studies. Before joining the University of Sydney she taught at the University of Warwick and at the University of Reading (UK).

I completed my PhD in East Asian history at the Australian National University in 2006. Prior to coming to Sydney in 2022, I taught Japanese Studies / Japanese History at the National University of Singapore.

My main area of expertise is the history of minority groups in Japan, with a special focus on Burakumin. I have written two monographs that cover both the early modern and modern historical dimensions of these communities. Some of my research also involves a comparative analysis of the experiences of these communities (comparative caste studies) as well as study of the transnational dimensions of their activities. I am also interested in researching and writing histories that meaningfully connect to the study of these communities, including religious/intellectual, material, and animal histories.

Dr Irene An's primary research interests are in the areas of CALL (Computer Assisted
Language Learning) and Second Language Acquisition, Second/Foreign Language Teaching. Her PhD was on E-learning in blended language learning environments. Her earlier MA was in Applied Linguistics, focusing on Second Language Acquisition and Second/Foreign Language Teaching. Her teaching focuses on modern Chinese language of all levels.

Ms Sun An is an Associate Lecturer (Education) in Korean Studies at The University of Sydney. With extensive experience in Korean language education, her teaching and scholarship focus on Korean language acquisition, student-centred pedagogy, and culturally responsive instruction. She is dedicated to fostering engaging, inclusive learning environments that support language proficiency and intercultural competence.

Teaching and Leadership

Coordinator & Lecturer: KRNS1621 (Korean 1), KRNS1622 (Korean 2), KRNS2621 (Korean 3), KRNS2622 (Korean 4)

Coordinator: KRNS3624 (Korean 8)

Lionel Babicz is a historian of Japan, Asia, the Earth, and the Universe. He teaches in the disciplines of Japanese Studies and Asian Studies. His research focuses on the history of Japanese–Korean relations and the intellectual history of the Meiji period (1868–1912). He also works on Big History, a transdisciplinary approach that integrates knowledge across the humanities and sciences.

Lionel Babicz completed his PhD in Japanese history at INALCO in Paris, under the supervision of the eminent historian Michel Vié. He also holds a degree in the History of the Islamic World from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where his studies included Arabic and Urdu. Prior to joining the University of Sydney, he taught East Asian Studies at the Hebrew University and served as a researcher at the Maison Franco-Japonaise in Tokyo.

Having lived in Tokyo for over a decade, Lionel Babicz studied at Hitotsubashi University under the supervision of the renowned historian Yasumaru Yoshio (安丸良夫).

His work moves from detailed analyses of key moments in modern Japanese history – such as the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution on 11 February 1889 – to comparative explorations of colonial and postcolonial relationships, particularly Japan-Korea and France-Algeria.

He is also an associate researcher at the Japan Center of EHESS in Paris.

Jason Birch (DPhil, Oxon) is a historian of South Asian traditions of yoga and medicine. He is currently a senior research fellow for the ‘Light on Hatha Yoga’ project at SOAS University of London and the University of Marburg. He is also co-director of the Yogacintāmaṇi project at the Universityof Massachusetts Boston and a visiting researcher on the Suśruta Project at the University of Alberta (http://sushrutaproject.org). He has published articles in academic journals and critically edited and translated six texts onHaṭhayoga for the Hatha Yoga Project 2015–2020 (http://hyp.soas.ac.uk). In 2015, Jason was a post-doctoral researcher on the AyurYog Project at the University of Vienna (http://www.ayuryog.org), for which he wrote an articleon premodern yoga traditions and Ayurveda. He has taught Masters courses and Sanskrit reading classes at SOAS and given seminars on the history of yoga for MA programs at the Università Ca’ Foscari in Venice, Won KwangUniversity in South Korea and Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He is a founding member of the Centre of Yoga Studies SOAS and the Journal of Yoga Studies.

PhD, University of Sydney

Daniel Canaris is an intellectual historian specialising in Sino-Western cultural exchange, as well as the Italian Enlightenment and Renaissance. He completed his PhD in Italian Studies at the University of Sydney in 2017 and has been awarded fellowships by the University Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Warburg Institute (University of London), the Sun Yat-sen University, the Ricci Insitute for Chinese-Western Cultural History (University of San Francisco), Villa I Tatti (Harvard; declined) and Boston College. He currently holds two ARC grants. As part of his ARC DECRA award, he is working on translations of the Aristotelian soul into Chinese. As part of his Discovery Project (with Francesco Borghesi, Yixu Lu and Thierry Meynard), he is working on the translation and reception of Confucian classics into Europe and manages the digital database, textus-sinici.org.

PhD, Linguistics (University of Salamanca/Flinders University) 

MA, Spanish Language Teaching (University of Salamanca) 

BA, Spanish Studies; BA, English Studies (University of Salamanca)

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy 

Beatriz is a linguist with training in sociolinguistic, pragmatic and discourse analysis approaches who specialises in humour and language pedagogy. She joined The University of Sydney as a Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies after completing a PhD in Lengua española at The University of Salamanca/Flinders University (Cotutelle program).

Her research is concerned with the role of language in shaping knowledge in humour contexts and teaching/learning contexts. She examines how language privileges certain ways of knowing over others, reinforcing existing hierarchies. Her work investigates discursive patterns of coloniality and how they go unnoticed in communication due to a "just kidding" logic in humour and to the unquestioning of authority in education. She applies theories from linguistics, decoloniality and sociology to analyse these patterns in online humour and teaching frameworks. Through her interdisciplinary approaches, she contributes to a nuanced understanding of the ways in which language conceptualizes knowledge.

Dr Yasuko Claremont has been teaching Japanese language, modern Japanese literature, comparative literature and Australian studies since 1984. She specializes in modern poetry and the works of Oe Kenzaburo, the Nobel laureate for literature in 1994. Her wide range of scholarship includes translation and research on Japanese journals of the 1920s (Josei, Shinseinen and Nyonin geijutsu), Nô drama and postwar reconciliation.

Chris Clark is an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney and has also held positions at the University of Edinburgh, Australian National University and Deakin University. To date, the majority of his research has focused on the Apadāna, a Theravāda Buddhist text in the Pali language. His broader research interests include Pali language and literature, Sanskrit language and literature, Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia (particularly Myanmar), and textual criticism. He has won research grants from numerous funding bodies, including the Pali Text Society and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.

Novi Djenar is Associate Professor in Indonesian Studies. Her research interests lie in questions about how language facilitates understandings of sociocultural and political ideas, including ideas about self-other relations, identity and style. Novi has worked on the stylistics of adolescent literature, focusing on the production and circulation of styles and their relationship to sociolinguistic change. Her current research examines language and relations among social actors in public spheres, particularly in broadcast settings. Novi is in the editorial board of the journals Discourse & Society, NUSA Linguistic Studies in and around Indonesia and Linguistik Indonesia. She is member of the Ad Hoc Expert Committee for UNESCO's World Atlas of Languages. Novi holds a BA in English literature from Universitas Gajah Mada, an MA in Linguistics and Politics from La Trobe University and a PhD in Linguistics from The University of Melbourne. Prior to coming to Sydney in 2009, she was convenor of the Indonesian Program at La Trobe University.

Anthony Dracopoulos teaches Greek Literature, Language and Comparative Literature. His research interests include 19th and 20th poetry and culture, literary theory, comparative literature and cultural studies. He has taught and delivered lectures at Macquarie, Flinders and Panteion Universities.`

PhD (U. Wollongong), B Asian Studies (Indonesian) (Hons 1) (ANU); BA (Asian Studies) (UNSW)

Professor Michele Ford is based in the Discipline of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses on Southeast Asian labour movements, the intersection between national and international trade unions, union responses to temporary labour migration and labour's engagement in the political sphere. This work has been supported by several Australian Research Council (ARC) grants. Michele currently leads two ARC Discovery Projects, one of which focuses on employment relations in Indonesia's commercial fishing industry and the other on generative AI attacks on unions in Southeast Asia. She also leads two ARC Linkage Projects, the first of which focuses on trade union responses to gender-based violence in Cambodia's construction industry and the second of which examines barriers to formal sector employment for people with disability in Timor-Leste. Michele is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. In addition to her academic work, she has been involved in extensive consultancy work for the ILO, the international labour movement and the Australian government.

Michele has a strong record of disciplinary service. She is currently President of the International Sociological Association's RC44. She also sits on the International Advisory Boards of the Global Asia Research Center at National Taiwan University; the Centre for Asian Studies in Africa (University of Pretoria); and the Cambodia Development Research Institute. Previously she served on the ARC College of Experts; and as Secretary of the Asian Studies Association of Australia; President of the Indonesia Council; the NSW representative on the ACICIS Reference Group; and the University of Sydney representative on the Australian Universities' Governing Committee of the Aceh Research Training Institute, as well as several other advisory boards.

Flavio Geisshuesler is the Khyentse-Macready Senior Lecturer in Tibetan Buddhism at the University of Sydney. His research examines how contemplative and religious systems transform perception, embodiment, and selfhood. He combines the historical and textual study of Tibetan Buddhism with comparative religion, philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science.

His primary area of expertise is Dzogchen (rdzogs chen, “Great Perfection”), a major contemplative tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Working with classical Tibetan sources and research in Himalayan contemplative settings, he approaches meditation as a practice embedded in ritual systems, historical narratives, institutions, and social and environmental worlds.

His open-access monograph, Tibetan Sky-Gazing Meditation and the Pre-History of Great Perfection Buddhism: The Skullward Leap Technique and the Quest for Vitality (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024; supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation), argues that key motifs of the visionary practice thod rgal emerged from indigenous Tibetan and Inner Asian religious formations before being reworked within Buddhist contemplative systems. The book reconstructs this long process of transformation from the seventh through the fourteenth centuries. His related research examines Nyingma history, sky-gazing, visionary experience, and the role of trauma, attachment, and dissociation in narratives of religious formation.

A second strand of his work investigates meditation as a historically and culturally organised form of experience. His “7E Model of the Human Mind” extends the embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended framework by emphasising the emotional, evolved, and exoconscious dimensions of cognition. His chapter “Direct Transcendence” examines meditation through the theory of intentional transformative experience. These projects challenge approaches that treat meditation as a decontextualised technique and instead ask how practices, stories, institutions, bodies, and environments shape contemplative experience.

Flavio also works on Ernesto de Martino and the Italian school of the history of religions. His monograph The Life and Work of Ernesto de Martino: Italian Perspectives on Apocalypse and Rebirth in the Modern Study of Religion (Brill, 2021) is the first comprehensive English-language study of de Martino. His related articles examine the “crisis of presence,” the relationship between religion and parapsychology, and de Martino’s engagements with twentieth-century science and continental philosophy.

His current book project, Beyond Calm, reconsiders meditation as a cultural technology. Drawing on Tibetan sources, the cognitive and psychological sciences, and the history of religions, it challenges the reduction of meditation to relaxation or stress management. The project examines traditions in which contemplative practice uses crisis, vision, mortality, and instability as conditions of transformation rather than problems simply to be eliminated.

At Sydney, Flavio teaches Tibetan, Sanskrit, Buddhist studies, tantra, meditation, and the comparative study of religion. He welcomes enquiries from prospective research students and collaborators interested in Dzogchen, Tibetan contemplative traditions, pre-Buddhist and Inner Asian religion, contemplative studies, cognitive science of religion, and Ernesto de Martino and the modern history of religions.

Across these projects, his central question is how individuals and cultures transform disruption into meaning.

I am a German Studies scholar working primarily in the field of contemporary German literature. My research focuses on the interface between contemporary German literature and recent German history, law and legal philosophy in contemporary German literature, processing the legacy of the Nazi past in German memory culture, and the history of German communities in Australia. I teach German language at all CEFR levels, as well as courses on German history and culture.

I graduated with a BA, LLB from the University of Sydney and had a career as a commercial litigation lawyer with a large Australian law firm before returning to the University of Sydney to complete my PhD in German Studies. I took up my current position at the University of Sydney in 2021.

My first monographThe version that wanted to be written: Writing the Nazi past as historiographic metafiction was published in 2021 with Erich Schmidt Verlag.

B.A. (Hons), PhD University of Sydney. 

Dr Josephine Goldman (she/her) is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Sydney, and an early-career researcher. 

Her PhD, entitled “Diving into heavy waters: Water and gender in contemporary francophone Caribbean and Oceanian art and literature”, explored how cultural and gender identity shape expressions of human-water relationships, focusing on how the material of water holds onto the past and incubates imaginations of Oceanian and Caribbean futures. Her current research focuses on historical and contemporary interactions of water and sound in Francophone Oceanian art and knowledge circulation, especially in histories of nuclear colonialism, with a particular focus on podcasts.

She has published in the Australian Journal of French Studies, Francosphères, Literature & Aesthetics, and French Studies Bulletin, and was a contributed to the 2024 edited volume Francophone Oceania Today (Liverpool University Press).

She is Postgraduate Early Career and Sessional Academic Representative for Australian Society of French Studies; Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Representative for Women in French Australia; and co-founder of the ESTUARY: A Harbour for Salt and Fresh Water Studies, a transnational multidisciplinary network of salt- and fresh-water scholars. She is also co-creator of Positionalities: the Women in French International podcast.

PhD, Tasmania; MA, Shanghai International Studies University; BA, Shanghai International Studies University

Yingjie Guo is Dawson Lee Chair in Chinese Culture. He received his BA and MA from Shanghai International Studies University, China and PhD from the University of Tasmania, Australia. His research focuses on cultural nationalism in contemporary China, Chinese cultural identities, and discourses of Chineseness. He is the author of Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China: Searching for National Identity under Reform and co-author of Nationalism, National Identity and Democratization in China; Class and the Communist Party of China, 1921-1978: Revolution and Social Change; and Class and the Communist Party of China, since 1978: China in Reform. His edited and co-edited volumes include Unequal China: Political Economy and Culture Politics, Handbook of Class and Stratification in the People’s Republic of China, Local Elites in Post-Mao China, and Jiaohua: Chinese Ideas and Practices of Moral Transformation.

As a Philosophy major at the National University of Singapore, my interest in Western Philosophy shifted to Chinese Philosophy before focusing on Buddhism. After NUS, I studied and worked in Tokyo and Kyoto before becoming a member of the inaugural cohort of the Master of Buddhist Studies program at the University of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, I had the opportunity to audit Professor Victor Mair's course on reading Chinese Buddhist texts. Encouraged by him to pursue further studies, I landed in Stanford's PhD Program in Buddhist Studies. After graduation, I immediately took up my current appointment as Lecturer in East Asian Buddhism at the University of Sydney.