Superlinguo 2025 in review
It has been a lovely and busy year. It has been so nice to see Gesture: A Slim guide out in the world. It was about four years from contract to publication, which isn't long in the world of academic publishing, but it's been long enough that sometimes it surprises me to see it on my shelf.
I was joined by three new colleagues, who have been wonderfully energetic and collaborative. I also joined the Higher Education Academy as a Senior Fellow, which has given me the opportunity to connect with other people doing interesting teaching work at La Trobe University.
And between the teaching and the research there was (thankfully) still time for podcasting and some blogging. A good year all around.
Lingthusiasm in 2025
Lingthusiasm turned 9! There were a dozen main episodes and an equal number of monthly bonus episodes for patrons.
We celebrated our 100th episode with 100 facts about linguistics, and then half a year later our 100th bonus, and also made our first bonus episode available for everyone to listen to. We also shared 101 places to get enthusiastic about linguistics, and 10 of the most popular Lingthusiasm episodes. There are 13 bonus episodes for 2025, as we re-released our very first bonus episode (with new introduction) for all patrons, including free supporters.
We launched some merch with our refreshed jazzy logo, and some Merry/Marry/Mery Christmas cards.
Main episodes
Whoa!! A surprise episode??? For me??!! (transcript)
The history of the history of Indo-European - Interview with Danny Bate (transcript)
On the nose - How the nose shapes language (transcript)
Highs and lows of tone in Babanki - Interview with Pius Akumbu (transcript)
Urban Multilingualism (transcript)
Is a hotdog a sandwich? The problem with definitions (transcript)
Linguistics of TikTok - Interview with Adam Aleksic aka EtymologyNerd (transcript)
Reading and language play in Sámi - Interview with Hanna-Máret Outakoski (transcript)
A hand-y guide to gesture (transcript)
The science and fiction of Sapir-Whorf (transcript)
Micro to macro - The levels of language (transcript)
A hundred reasons to be enthusiastic about linguistics (transcript)
Bonus episodes
The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript - Interview with Claire Bowern
World Linguistics Day
What’s in a nym? Synonyms, antonyms, and so many more
¡Pos ya está! Translating Because Internet into Spanish with Miguel Sánchez Ibáñez
Reading linguistic landscapes on street signs
Why sci-fi gestures live long and prosper - Crossover with Imaginary Worlds
Our very first swearing bonus episode, now unlocked! (available for free)
Advice #2 - Fun linguistic experiments, linguistic etiquette, and language learning scenarios
The linguistics of kissing 😘
Linguist Celebrities
Rock, paper, scissors, Gesture book, and a secret project - Survey results and general updates
What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking
Crochet vocal tract, grammar is a team sport, gifs, and soy sauce - Deleted scenes from Jacq Jones, Emily M. Bender, and Tom Scott team interviews
Top Superlinguo posts in 2025
There were a few posts celebrating the publication of Gesture: A Slim Guide but also over a dozen other substantive posts. It's good to know that even without putting pressure on myself the blog is ticking along as a broadly monthly concern.
Gesture: A Slim Guide posts
Cover Reveal - Gesture: A Slim Guide
Gesture: A Slim Guide - Five Fun Facts
Lauren talks about Gesture: podcast and media roundup
General posts
Introducing the Lingcomm Bibliography: tracking research on linguistic communication
Australian Journal of Linguistics special issue in honour of Barbara Frances Kelly
My collection of Academic Research/Admin tools
Position Statement on Generative AI in teaching and research
Review: The Cambridge Handbook of Gesture Studies
Blind people gesture (and why that’s kind of a big deal)
International Conference on Linguistics Communication (LingComm25) - registrations open!
A Decade of Lingwiki: An informal history
In praise of niche papers
Immortal Gestures, Damon Young (review)
Happy World Linguistics Day! (Nov 26)
Academic articles in 2025
Alongside the publication of Gesture: A Slim guide, there were four academic publications this year, across lingcomm, gesture, Tibetic and linguistics data. Happily, all of these were published open access. It's great to see funding models are shifting and I am able to more easily publish work that anyone can read.
Rodríguez Louro, C., K. Parton & L. Gawne. For the love of people: Introduction to the special issue in honour of Barbara Frances Kelly. (2025). Australian Journal of Linguistics. 45.3: 259–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2025.2514173 [blog summary]
Gawne, L., K.A. Hildebrandt & S. Styles. (2025). Natural disasters elicit spontaneous multimodal iconicity in onomatopoeia and gesture: Earthquake narratives from Nepal and New Zealand. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 45.3: 448–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2025.2506628 [blog summary]
Gawne, L., H.N. Andreassen, L. Ferrara, A.L. Berez-Kroeker. (2025). Open research requires open mindedness: commentary on “Replication and methodological robustness in quantitative typology” by Becker and Guzmán Naranjo. Linguistic Typology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2025-0018 [blog summary]
Gawne, L., & J. O’Donnell. (2025). Micro-patronage for research communication: the Lingthusiasm podcast as a case study of a sustainable funding model. Journal of Science Communication 24(03). https://doi.org/10.22323/146620250609102339 [blog summary]
The year ahead
I submitted an application for promotion in 2025, and will start 2026 as an Associate Professor. A promotion application is not a trivial thing to write (I tracked my time, it was at least 25 hours, and that's even with documentation pretty organised already).
2026 is hopefully going to be a year of lots of curriculum planning and development. This kind of work is often not very visible, so I'm hoping to document some of it as we go. There are, as always, lots of research and lingcomm plans afoot too.
Browsing old Superlinguo content?
I have a welcome page on the blog that points you to aggregate posts, and series of posts I’ve done over the years, as well as themed collections of posts that have appeared on the blog in the last twelve years.
Previous years
Superlinguo 2024 in review
Superlinguo 2023 in review
Superlinguo 2022 in review
Superlinguo 2021 in review
Superlinguo 2020 in review
Superlinguo 2020 (2019 in review)
Superlinguo 2019 (2018 in review)
Superlinguo 2018 (2017 in review)
Superlinguo 2017 (2016 in review)
Superlinguo 2015 highlights
