Dr Joshua Brown
Areas of expertise
- Italian Language 200309
- Language In Culture And Society (Sociolinguistics) 200405
- Language In Time And Space (Incl. Historical Linguistics, Dialectology) 200406
- Linguistics Not Elsewhere Classified 200499
Research interests
Language history, philology, historical sociolinguistics, language variation and change, Romance linguistics, language contact, language pedagogy
Biography
After completing my PhD in history of the Italian language, I held a two-year position as Cassamarca Assistant Professor in Italian at The University of Western Australia. My dissertation looked at early evidence for tuscanisation in non-literary texts sent from Milan in the late 14th century, and I was lucky enough to make use of documents in the Datini Archive, Prato whose more than 150,000 documents are almost all available for viewing online. In addition to the history of the Italian language, my research interests have widened to include broader questions of dialect contact, language change, and koineization.
From 2016-17, I was a postdoctoral fellow in Italian Studies at Romanska och klassiska institutionen, Stockholm University. I took up my position in Italian at ANU in 2018. I am the Convenor for the Italian Studies program, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of the Outreach and Engagement Reference Group in the School of Literature, Linguistics and Languages. I am an affiliate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, the Centre for Digital Humanities Research, and an Honorary Research Associate of the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies.
Researcher's projects
- Koineization in Renaissance Italy
- Linguistic convergence
- Vector space mapping
Organizer of 2018 Australian Linguistic Society workshop (with Dr Manuel Delicado Cantero) on Romance linguistics in Australasia: Current models and new trends:
https://als.asn.au/Conference/Conference-2018/Conference-program
Available student projects
Proposals are welcome for Honours, MPhil, and PhD research in any of the areas listed in the research interests section above.
Publications
- Brown, J 2018, 'Il contatto linguistico nel medioevo lombardo (Linguistic contact in the Lombard Middle Ages)', Revista de Filologia Romanica, vol. 35, pp. 103-118.
- Brown, J & Verdina, F 2018, 'Managing Expectations: A Case Study of Sessional Staff in Languages and Cultures Education in Australian Universities', Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 19-27.
- Brown, J 2018, 'Book Review: Passione Trivulziana. Armonia evangelica volgarizzata in milanese antico. Edizione critica e commentata, analisi linguistica e glossario (Trivulzian Passion. Evangelical harmony vulgarized in ancient Milanese. Critical and commented edition, l', Italian Studies, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 114-116.
- Brown, J 2017, 'The Influence of Milan on the Development of the Lombard Koine in Fifteenth-Century Italy: the Letters of Elisabetta of Pavia', Quaderni d'Italianistica, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 131-151.
- Brown, J 2017, 'Multilingual merchants: the trade network of the 14th century Tuscan merchant Francesco di Marco Datini', in Esther-Miriam Wagner, Bettina Beinhoff, Ben Outhwaite (ed.), Merchants of Innovation: The Languages of Traders, De Gruyter Mouton, Germany, pp. 235-251.
- Brown, J 2017, Early Evidence for Tuscanisation in the Letters of Milanese Merchants in the Datini Archive, Prato, 1396-1402, Istituto Lombardo. Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, Italy.
- Caruso, M & Brown, J 2017, 'Continuity in foreign language education in Australia: The Language Bonus plan', Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (print edition), vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 280-310pp.
- Brown, J 2016, Book Review: Report of Rosendo Salvado to Propaganda Fide in 1883, pp. online.
- Brown, J & Caruso, M 2016, 'Access granted: Modern languages and issues of accessibility at university - a case study from Australia', Language Learning in Higher Education, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 453-471.
- Caruso, M & Brown, J 2015, 'Broadening units to broadened horizons: The impact of New Courses 2012 on enrolments in Italian at the University of Western Australia', Babel, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 23-37.
- Brown, J 2015, 'Testimonianze di una precoce toscanizzazione nelle lettere commerciali del mercante milanese Francesco Tanso (?-1398), Archivio Datini, Prato (Testimonies of an early Tuscanization in the commercial letters of the Milanese merchant Francesco Tanso (?-139', Forum Italicum, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 683-714.
- Brown, J & Kinder, J 2015, Canon Raffaele Martelli in Western Australia, 1853-1864, Morning Star Publishing, Australia.
- Caruso, M & Brown, J 2014, 'Innovative translation: Dubbing films in Italian with iMovie', Languages & Cultures Network for Australian Universities Colloquium (LCNAU 2013) - The Second National LCNAU Colloquium, ed. C Travis, J Hajek, C Nettelbeck, E Beckmann and A Lloyd-Smith, LCNAU, Australia, pp. 507-518.
- Brown, J & Caruso, M 2014, 'New Courses 2012: The impact on enrolments in Italian at the University of Western Australia', Languages & Cultures Network for Australian Universities Colloquium (LCNAU 2013) - The Second National LCNAU Colloquium, ed. C Travis, J Hajek, C Nettelbeck, E Beckmann and A Lloyd-Smith, LCNAU, Australia, pp. 39-53.
- Brown, J 2013, 'Book Review: Tyler, Elizabeth M., ed. Conceptualizing Multilingualism in England, c. 800-c. 1250 (Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 27),Turnhout, Brepols, 2012', Parergon, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 254-256.
- Brown, J 2013, 'Transcribing the Italian Correspondence of Canon Raffaele Martelli, 1853-1864', New Norcia Studies, vol. 21, pp. 73-82.
- Brown, J 2013, 'Language Variation in Fifteenth-Century Milan: Evidence of Koineization in the Letters (1397–1402) of the Milanese Merchant Giovanni da Pessano', Italian Studies, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 57-77.
- Brown, J 2012, 'Evidence for Early Tuscanisation in the commercial letters of the Milanese Merchant Giovannino Da Dugnano (?-1398) in the Datini Archive in Prato', Italica, vol. 89, no. 4, pp. 464-488.
- Brown, J 2012, 'Book Review: Gran Bretagna: 249. Lorenzo Rocchi, La lingua di chi e' emigrato. Un indagine tra la Sicilia e l'Inghilterra. In "Altreitalie" 33, 2006: pp. 129-156 (Great Britain: 249. Lorenzo Rocchi, The language of those who emigrated. A survey betw', Rivista Italiana di Dialettologia: scuola societa territorio, vol. 35, pp. 510-510.
- Brown, J 2008, 'Book Review: Richard Freadman, This Crazy Thing a Life: Australian Jewish Autobiography, UWA Press, Crawley, 2007', Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies, vol. 14, pp. 115-116.
