Amir Sheikhan is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics (Linguistics & Applied Linguistics). His research lies in the field of pragmatics, particularly the role of language in social interaction, with a current focus on (im)politeness, conversational humour, and intercultural communication. His work examines how meaning is co-constructed in interaction and how people negotiate relationships and moral order through talk. Working within interactional pragmatics, his research analyses a range of interactional data and explores how pragmatic phenomena emerge and how social actions are accomplished in real-world communication. Amir’s research has been globally recognised through international and national grants, conference keynotes, invited talks, and publications in the field’s leading journals and edited volumes.
Amir is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teaches courses in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics (LAL), particularly those that discuss how language is used in context, discourse, and society. His teaching foregrounds language-in-use and the integration of theory with real-world communicative practices and is informed by his research in sociopragmatics. His teaching places particular emphasis on developing students’ ability to analyse authentic data, engage critically with linguistic concepts, and reflect on the social dimensions of language.
Amir completed his PhD at The University of Queensland in 2023, where he held research and teaching positions before joining Adelaide University in 2025. He has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellowship and will be based at Lancaster University, UK, from 2026–2028 to undertake his research project. He is also an Editorial Board member of the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics.