Dr Fiona O’Neill (Phd) is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics and Program Director of the Bachelor of Arts. Fiona’s research focuses on the significance of language in professional interactions, particularly at critical moments in which communicative rights and capabilities are unequally distributed, placing shared meanings and life, health and wellbeing outcomes at risk. As lead and co-lead in multiple industry-partnered and funded projects investigating language use in justice, counselling and healthcare contexts, her work investigates the role of language in creating trust, care and accountabilities moment by moment in professional encounters.
The applied orientation of Fiona’s linguistic research involves collaborating with organisations and professions to examine communicative expertise and challenges in everyday encounters, and co-design evidence-based learning resources for practitioners, including in policing, counselling and aged care contexts. Given the cross-cutting nature of language and communication challenges, Fiona often works in multidisciplinary teams with colleagues from medicine, nursing, law, and psychology, and her focus on language and learning in the professions is informed by her previous career as a healthcare practitioner.
The impact of her collaborative work has been recognised nationally and internationally in her field through awards, successful competitive industry-funded grants, commercialisation of professional learning digital resources, peer-reviewed publications, including a research monograph, and invitations to peer review. Fiona integrates her research and engagement within her teaching and learning practice, fostering learning communities and connections between higher education and community/industry partners, enriching students’ learning experiences, and highlighting the relevance of the Humanities and Social Sciences in co-creating solutions for pressing human and societal problems.