Talks

I have spoken about global collaboration, the rise of China, language education and storytelling in a range of international settings. If you are looking for a speaker to inspire your audience on any of the topics below - please, make contact here!

Global Collaboration and the Rise of China

I spoke about global risk and global governance at a global citizenship forum organised by Asia Education Foundation in 2017 and at the Global Challenges Foundation Annual Gathering in 2016.
I spoke about coordinating cultural projects in a global context at Paris-Sorbonne University in 2016, Ecole Normale Superieure in 2014, and at the Melbourne International Festival of Literature, Ideas and Language in 2012.
I spoke about the multilingual Internet at the 2014 Fondapol event 'Le Progrès c'est nous' in Paris (recording here) and at the 2014 Melbourne Writers Festival, and offered a journey through digital China as part of the 2014 Sydney Ideas program.

Language & innovation

I spoke about the future of language education, exploring the potential of language education to train resilience and capacity to deal with ambiguity, at the 2017 Melbourne Bastille Day, 2016 Language Con at NYU Shanghai, and in 2016 at the Australian Defence Forces School of Languages.
I presented new models for digital language education at the Language And Culture Network of Australian Universities in 2013, 2015 and 2017, as well as the 2016 Language Conference in Shanghai.
I spoke about the collaborative translation and the ethics of translation in the digital age in my capacity as Industry Fellow with the Monash University Centre for Translation and Interpretation. I also conducted a dialogue on the future of translation with Jiamin Zhao, founder of Yeeyan, China's largest translation crowd-sourcing platform, as part of the 2014 Digital Writers Festival.

Storytelling

I was invited to speak about stories, place and memory in various forums. I spoke about Beijing at the 2014 Melbourne Writers Festival and about Australian stories competing in an international market as part of a panel on Going global at the 2011 Emerging Writers Festival. In 2011, I spoke with French writer Yannick Haenel at Alliance Francaise de Melbourne on his book The Messenger, exploring the literary (re)construction of historical events and personal memory.
I explored the topic of stories, gender and sexuality at festivals and events. In 2013, I was invited to speak at Feminist salon Cherchez la Femme on the topic of Feminism and Language. At the 2011 Melbourne Emerging Writers Festival, I discussed the problematic label of 'gay writer' as part of a panel on Tyecasting, and I was a guest speaker at the 2009 Dunas Festival in Gran Canaria to speak about queer Young Adult fiction.
Since 2014, I have used the power of storytelling as ambassador for the Asia Education Foundation to inspire a love of Asian languages among primary & secondary school students, and in 2012-2013, I co-hosted 'What's the moral of this', a monthly storytelling event for non-native speakers of English exploring implicit ethical judgements revealed through personal narratives.