Professor Lesley Stirling is Professor in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in the School of Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts, at the University of Melbourne, where she has worked since 1989, contributing to the development of the Linguistics and Applied Linguistics program. She earned her PhD in Linguistics and Cognitive Science from the University of Edinburgh, where she also taught prior to joining Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Queensland. Stirling has held key leadership positions, including Head of the School of Languages and Linguistics from 2019 to 2023, Interim Dean of the Faculty of Arts from January to July 2024, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (People and Community) from April 2025, Assistant Dean (Equal Opportunity and Diversity) from 2009 to 2014, and currently serves as Deputy Head of the School. She was President of the Australian Linguistic Society from 2011 to 2017 and is Head of the Linguistics Section of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, a Fellow (FAHA) of which she was elected. In 2015, she received a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Awards for University Teaching for her sustained commitment to mentoring students and staff.

Stirling's research focuses on descriptive and typological linguistics, semantics and discourse analysis, conversation analysis, cognitive science, psycholinguistics, and communication in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Her projects explore meaning and interaction in health communication, narratives by individuals on the autism spectrum, and turn-taking, knowledge management, and storytelling in conversations among speakers of Australian Aboriginal languages like Murrinhpatha, Garrwa, and Jaru, and Anglo-Australians in remote regions. She is an adjunct member of the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre at La Trobe University and Professor in the Research Unit for Indigenous Language. Key publications include the book Children's Play, Pretence and Story: Studies in Culture, Context, and ASD (2015), "Towards an interactional grammar of interjections: Expressing compassion in four Australian languages" (2023), "On the road again: Displaying knowledge of place in multiparty conversations in the remote Australian outback" (2022), "Tools of Engagement: Selecting a Next Speaker in Australian Aboriginal Multiparty Conversations" (2018), and co-editing a special issue on Tense, Aspect, Modality and Evidentiality in Australian Languages (2012). She led the ARC Linkage project Talking about Place (2010-2014).

Professional Email: lesleyfs@unimelb.edu.au