Samantha Disbray

Samantha Disbray serves as Senior Lecturer in Endangered Languages within the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland, a position she has held since 2019. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. In addition to her lecturing role, she is the convenor of the Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Language Revitalisation and Co-Director of Indigenous Engagement in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Her academic and research approach is characterized by collaboration, community guidance, and practical application, shaped by her experiences as a non-Indigenous researcher who has lived and worked on the unceded lands of the Kaurna, Arrernte, Warumungu, Warlpiri, Pintupi-Luritja, Jagera, and Turrbal peoples. Disbray's research specializations encompass Indigenous language revitalisation and maintenance, particularly in Central Australia and Queensland. Her interests extend to the sociology of language, including the role of languages in education, language policy and planning, and their integration into the arts. She supervises students in these areas and produces both traditional academic outputs and high-impact resources such as exhibitions, curricula, learning materials, teacher resource books, and image banks.

Disbray maintains a prolific publication record, with 15 journal articles, 12 book chapters, and 4 books to her name. Key works include the Warumungu Picture Dictionary (2005), co-authored with community members, and Mangurr-jangu Mirlamirlajinjikki - Teaching and learning with pictures (2022, with A. Harrison). Other significant contributions are book chapters in The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages (2023, with G. Wigglesworth) on Indigenous children’s language practices, and "University-school partnerships" in Language Policy (2023, with K. Hashimoto). Journal articles highlight her impact, such as "The development of reference realization and narrative in an Australian contact language" (Frontiers in Psychology, 2016), "Spaces for learning: policy and practice for indigenous languages" (Language and Education, 2015), and "Languages ideologies and practice from the land and the classroom" (Modern Language Journal, 2020). She has co-authored research reports like "Global Lessons: Indigenous languages and multilingualism in school programs" (2018) and participated in grants including a 2023 literature review for the Aboriginal Languages Trust on First Nations Language Education in NSW and an ARC Discovery Project on illustrated literature from Papunya and Strelley (2021-2025). Her contributions advance bilingual education, oral language development, and language policy in remote Indigenous Australian communities.