Lo Bianco, Joseph

Joseph Lo Bianco (born 7 July 1953) is Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, and serves as past president of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (the first educator elected to this role). From 2011–2017 he designed, led and implemented a 6-year, 3-country language and peace building initiative for UNICEF in Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. He has previously worked on peace building activities in Sri Lanka in the late 1990s, and in several other settings. He is a language planning specialist, recognised for his work on combining practical problem solving language policy with academic study of language problems. He has published extensively on bilingual education, English as a second/additional language, peace building and communication, multiculturalism and intercultural education, Asian studies, Italian language teaching and the revitalisation of indigenous and immigrant community languages.