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Two UWA Linguistics Honours students – James Bednall and Stephanie Jenkins - have won Summer Research Scholarships offered by ANU and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) to work on Indigenous languages. The scholarships cover travel, accommodation and expenses to work for eight weeks with archival materials at AIATSIS in Canberra, and also include a one-week field trip to the Wangka Maya Language Centre in Hedland.

James' and Stephanie's achievement is especially significant in light of a message that AIATSIS sent around to Australian universities a couple of months ago: "We have been receiving a phenomenal number of enquiries from students regarding the 2011-2012 AIATSIS-ANU Summer Research Scholarships… The downside [is that there are only] two scholarships on offer. " And they both went to UWA students!

Apart from their academic achievements, Stephanie's and James' applications were no doubt assisted by the fact that they have independently taken part in the Linguistics discipline program of professional experience placements in partnership with regional Indigenous Language Centres in WA, Stephanie at Wangka Maya in Hedland and James at Irra Wangga in Geraldton. Both of them are doing their Honours projects on Indigenous languages. Stephanie is looking at discourse structure in Nyangumarta, while James is investigating modal categories across the dialects of the Western Desert language.

In addition, James has already been offered a professional position as Linguist at Irra Wangga, which he will be taking up as soon as he finishes his assessment in November. (Irra Wangga will be kindly allowing him leave to take up the ANU/AIATSIS Scholarship.)

The Faculty congratulates Stephanie and James on their significant achievements.

Media references

Dr John Henderson (Discipline Chair, Linguistics, Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences) (+61 8)  6488 2870

Christine Lindsey (Marketing Manager, Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences) (+61 8)  6488 1247