Speakers and presenters

Three and a half tomatoes with sprigs of basil on a white plate. The whole tomatoes have their stalks attached. A few peppercorns are sprinkled on the plate and more are on the table to the right of it.

Dr Eugen Bacon

Born in Tanzania and based in Melbourne, Eugen Bacon is an African Australian author. She’s a British Fantasy and Foreword Indies Award winner, a twice World Fantasy Award finalist, and a finalist in the Shirley Jackson, Philip K. Dick, Victorian Premier’s Literary Award (for her novel Serengotti), and the Nommo Awards for speculative fiction by Africans. Eugen is an Otherwise Fellow, and was also announced in the honor list for “doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction”. Danged Black Thing made the Otherwise Award Honor List as a “sharp collection of Afro-Surrealist work”. She’s an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Tasmania, and a 2024 Hedberg Writer-in-Residence.

Visit her at eugenbacon.com.

Keynote speaker

Emeritus Professor Roland Sussex OAM

Roland (Roly) Sussex (M.A. Hons Canterbury; PhD London) is a specialist in language, communication and culture, and health communication. He was Professor of Applied Language Studies at the University of Queensland from 1989 until 2010. Before that he taught Linguistics and Russian at the University of Reading (UK) and Monash University in Melbourne, and was the foundation professor of Russian at the University of Melbourne from 1977 to 1989. He is currently Research Professor in the Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation, and in the School of Languages and Cultures, at the University of Queensland.

He is currently President of the English Speaking Union of Queensland (2018-). In 2012 he was made Patron of the Institute of Professional Editors, and in 2020 Patron of Communication, Speech & Performance Teachers (Inc.). He is co-editor of the international journal Intercultural Communication Studies, and is a member of the editorial boards of a number of academic journals. His current research is focused on language, culture and society, technology, and, more recently, pain and health.

When he is not engaged in researching and writing about language, communication, culture and health, he works on his garden and acreage, rides road bikes and mountain bikes, and indulges his passion for classical music.

He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2012, and was a made a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques by the French Government in 2017, and a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.

Keynote speaker