Professor Janet Fletcher is Professor of Phonetics and Professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in the School of Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Melbourne. She directs the Phonetics Laboratory and serves as a Chief Investigator in the University of Melbourne node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CoEDL). Her research specializations include phonetic typology, prosody, intonation, speech timing, laboratory phonology, and Australian Aboriginal languages. She investigates the intonation and prosody of Australian English, intonation patterns in Australian and Oceanic languages, coarticulation effects in Australian languages, the phonetics-phonology interface, sound change, forensic phonetics, sociophonetics, and phonetics of English as a second language. Fletcher has led or contributed to major projects such as the ARC-funded Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (2014-2021), the ARC Discovery Project 'Are super-complex words represented like sentences in speakers' minds?' (2018-2020) with Associate Professor Brett Baker and Dr Rikke Bundgaard-Nielsen, the ARC project on the structure and meaning of intonation in three Australian languages with Dr Ruth Singer and Dr Marija Tabain, and the Big Australian Speech Corpus (AuSpeech) with Dr Debbie Loakes, Professor John Hajek, Professor David Grayden, and Professor Steven Bird.

Prior to her current role, Fletcher held academic appointments at the University of Edinburgh, La Trobe University, and Macquarie University. She was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) in 2013. Her scholarly impact is evidenced by highly cited publications, including 'An introduction to phonetics and phonology' (1995, over 2,000 citations), 'The prosody of speech: Timing and rhythm' (2010, 523 citations), 'The articulatory kinematics of final lengthening' (1991, 430 citations), 'Prosodic structure and tempo in a sonority model of articulatory dynamics' (1992, 395 citations), 'Intonational variation in four dialects of English: the high rising tune' (2005, 163 citations), and 'Australian English pronunciation and transcription' (2017, 186 citations). Fletcher's contributions extend to editorial roles and collaborations in prosodic typology studies, enhancing global understanding of speech production, rhythm, and intonational phonology across languages.

Professional Email: j.fletcher@unimelb.edu.au