Rate My Professor Amir Sheikhan

Dr. Amir Sheikhan serves as a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics within the School of Society and Culture at the College of Education, Behavioural and Social Sciences, Adelaide University. He earned his PhD from The University of Queensland in 2023, with a thesis titled "Conversational humour in intercultural initial interactions in English." Prior to his current role, which he assumed in 2025, he held research and teaching positions at The University of Queensland. Sheikhan's research lies in pragmatics, particularly the role of language in social interaction, with a focus on (im)politeness, conversational humour, and intercultural communication. Working within interactional pragmatics, his research examines how meaning is co-constructed in interaction, how people negotiate relationships and moral order through talk, and how pragmatic phenomena emerge and social actions are accomplished in real-world communication.

Sheikhan's work has been globally recognised through international and national grants, conference keynotes, invited talks, and publications in leading journals and edited volumes. He has secured the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellowship for 2026–2028, during which he will be based at Lancaster University, UK, to undertake the project "(Im)politeness and conversational humour in a multicultural society: Exploring new media and real-life contexts." Additionally, he received the Justice & Society Kickstart Grant in 2025 for his current project "The pragmatics of social action and moral order in interaction." Key publications include "Responses to conversational humour: an analytical framework" (Journal of Pragmatics, 2024), "'I hope this is your last sorrow': condolence strategies in colloquial Persian" (Pragmatics and Society, 2024), "Epistemics and conversational humour in intercultural first conversations" (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 2023), "Non-serious answers to (improper) questions in talk shows" (Journal of Pragmatics, 2022), and "Pragmatic functions of 'sort of' in Persian: a vague language perspective" (Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 2019). He teaches Linguistics and Applied Linguistics courses, including LANG 1056 Language in Society, LANG 2022 Language and Identity, and LANG 3041 Language, Meaning and Discourse in 2025. An Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he is eligible to co-supervise Masters and PhD students and holds memberships in the Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre, Social Relationships and Communities Research Group, International Pragmatics Association, and Australasian Humour Studies Network. He also serves on the editorial board of the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (2026–2028).