Phil Benson is a Professor of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Multilingualism Research Centre. Members of the Centre investigate key issues on the roles of languages in social and professional life in Sydney and beyond. Through interdisciplinary academic partnerships and community connections, the team aims to generate research findings that enhance the quality of life in a multilingual world.

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(1) In a nutshell, my job is to…
To teach, research, and, as Director of the new Faculty of Human Sciences Multilingualism Research Centre, guide our team and make Macquarie University a recognised leader in research on multilingualism.

(2) The question I hear most often in my work is…
“Why is multilingualism important in this University?” A short answer is that Macquarie is situated in one of the most multilingual districts of Australia’s most multilingual city. Languages are everywhere we look, and a factor in every aspect of our lives.

(3) The thing I find most rewarding in my role is…
Learning more about the languages of Sydney and meeting the people who speak them.

(4) This year I want to…
It’s late in a busy year, so I am going to say, make it to the end!

(5) The bravest thing I’ve done is…
Sell up everything in Hong Kong five years ago and commit the last years of my career to Macquarie.

(6) A place that’s special to me is…
Manchester, where I grew up. I have been there only a few times since I left 40 years ago, but we now have a great collaboration going with the Multilingual Manchester research centre.

(7) My mother/father always told me…
My mother always told me to do whatever I wanted to do. I saw nothing unusual in that at the time, but now I know it had quite an impact.

 (8) My guilty pleasure…
Heavy metal gigs (said quietly).

(9) My hidden talent is…
I am a volunteer audiobook reader of public domain books for Librivox.org. I specialise in northern English dialect writing.

(10) I’m scared of…
What big business is doing to our climate.

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Check out the Multilingualism Research Centre’s next event on Tuesday 8 October – Visual methodologies in multilingualism research – where Phil will presenting on how to conduct linguistic landscape research more systematically and discuss its significance for the study of multilingualism in urban life.