Josh Dahmen

Josh Dahmen is a Researcher at the School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University (ANU), specializing in Australian Aboriginal languages through fieldwork on the endangered Jaru language of Western Australia. He concurrently serves as an Associate Lecturer at Macquarie University, contributing to linguistics education.

His research profile centers on:

• Interactional linguistics and conversation analysis methodologies
• Documentation of Australian First Nations languages
• Language socialisation processes in remote communities
• Multimodal communication and spatial cognition
• Bilingual speech dynamics in creole contexts

Employing video recordings and qualitative analysis, his work examines how language structures social interaction in Indigenous Australian settings.

Analysis of his 2020-2025 publications reveals consistent focus on grammatical structures in conversational contexts, with increasing attention to spatial reference systems and interjections across multiple Australian languages. His research bridges linguistic theory with urgent language preservation needs.

Dahmen actively contributes to two major Australian Research Council projects:

• Body, Language and Socialisation Across Cultures (led by Emeritus Professor Alan Rumsey)
• Conversational Interaction in Aboriginal and Remote Australia (led by Associate Professor Joe Blythe)

These frameworks support his collaborative investigations into language contact phenomena and socialisation practices.