Professor Janet Holmes shortlisted for Women of Influence Awards
Professor Jennifer Windsor, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences and Education, says Professor Holmes’ work has broken down barriers for better social inclusion and equality in Aotearoa.
“This is well deserved recognition of the significant impact of Professor Holmes’s research and global influence as a sociolinguist and social scientist.”
Throughout her 45 year+ career teaching linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, Professor Holmes has operated at the cutting edge of sociolinguistic research. From helping to establish non-sexist language guidelines in the late 1980s, to demonstrating the value of ‘feminine’ and Māori forms of leadership in more recent years, her research has offered new ways of thinking about how we use language in everyday interactions.
She was director and remains a principal researcher for the internationally-acclaimed Wellington Language in the Workplace Project, which has amassed the largest collection of naturally-occurring spoken interaction in workplaces over 20+ years. This project offers new applications for linguistic research and has secured Janet’s status as a founder in the now thriving field of workplace discourse.
Professor Windsor says Professor Holmes has also worked tirelessly as an active mentor of junior academics, especially women and students from ethnic minorities, including offering support through prizes and scholarships for the ongoing training of researchers and skilled migrants. She has written or edited 25 books on sociolinguistic topics and supervised to successful completion 18 MA theses and 35 PhD theses.
“A generous mentor and collaborative researcher, Professor Holmes is a social scientist par excellence. Rather than leaving her research within the halls of academia, Professor Holmes has actively taken her findings back to the communities and workplaces with whom she has researched, ensuring that her insights on language can be put into practice.”
The Women of Influence 2019 winners will be announced at the Awards Dinner at SKYCITY Auckland on 24 October. Professor Holmes is a finalist in the public policy category.