Meakins received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts at the University of Queensland. She completed her master's thesis, Lashings of Tongue: A Relevance Theoretic Account of Impoliteness, in 2001. Meakins earned her Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in 2008 for her work with the Aboriginal Child Language Project. Rachel Nordlinger was main supervisor for Meakins' dissertation, Case-marking in contact: the development and function of case morphology in Gurindji Kriol, an Australian mixed language. She is currently a senior lecturer at The University of Queensland, Australia. She also serves as a chief investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. Together with Patrick McConvell, Meakins was the first linguist to describe Gurindji Kriol, a mixed language which emerged in the Kalkarindji community of northern Australia post-1970s. She has performed fieldwork and facilitated language revitalisation work in this region since 2001 and published extensive documentation of languages in the Ngumpin-Yapa family, including a grammar of Bilinarra and dictionaries of Bilinarra and Gurindji. Meakins has publicly advocated for greater awareness of Australian Indigenous languages, the benefits of bilingualism and bilingual education for Indigenous children, and Gurindji history. She has published several articles in The Conversation, performed a TEDx talk and collaborated with Karungarni Arts and rangers from the Murnkurrumurnkurru Central Land Council. Her work chronicling Gurindji oral histories in particular attracted media attention around the fiftieth anniversary of the Wave Hill walk-off.
Awards
In June 2017 Meakins was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, a four-year mid-career award of $896,163, to focus on language evolution and contact processes across northern Australia. The purpose of Future Fellowships is "to attract and retain the best and brightest mid-career researchers". Meakins had previously received an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award and two ARC Discovery Projects awards.
Selected publications
Meakins has authored and edited more than fifty publications as of 2018.
Books
Introducing Linguistic Fieldwork. Meakins, Felicity, Jennifer Green and Myfany Turpin. London: Routledge, 2018
Loss and Renewal: Australian Languages Since Colonisation. Edited by Felicity Meakins and Carmel O'Shannessy Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton, 2016.
Mayarni-kari Yurrk: More Stories from Gurindji Country. Edited by Erika Charola and Felicity Meakins Batchelor, NT, Australia: Batchelor Press, 2016.
Yijarni: True Stories from Gurindji Country. Edited by Erika Charola and Felicity Meakins Canberra, Australia: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2016.
Kawarla: how to make a coolamon. Wadrill, Violet, Wavehill Yamawurr, Biddy and Meakins, Felicity. Batchelor, NT, Australia: Batchelor Press, 2015.
Bilinarra to English dictionary. Meakins, Felicity. Batchelor, NT, Australia: Batchelor Press, 2013.
Gurindji to English dictionary. Meakins, Felicity, McConvell, Patrick, Charola, Erika, McNair, Norm, McNair, Helen and Campbell, Lauren. Batchelor, NT, Australia: Batchelor Press, 2013.
Bilinarra, Gurindji and Malngin plants and animals: Aboriginal knowledge of flora and fauna from Judbarra/Gregory National Park, Nijburru, Kalkarindji and Daguragu, Northern Australia. Hector, Ivy Kulngari, Jungurra Kalabidi, George, Banjo, Spider, Nangari Ngarnjal Dodd, Topsy, Jangala Wirrba Wavehill, Ronnie, Danbayarri, Dandy, Nanaku Wadrill, Violet, Puntiyarri, Bernard, Bernard Malyik, Ida, Wavehill, Biddy, Morris, Helen, Campbell, Lauren, Meakins, Felicity and Wightmann, Glenn. Katherine, NT, Australia: Bilinarra, Gurindji and Malngin People; Department of Land Resource Management, 2012.
Case-marking in contact: The development and function of case morphology in Gurindji Kriol. Meakins, Felicity. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2011.
Other
Meakins, Felicity. Language contact varieties. In Harold Koch and Rachel Nordlinger, The languages and linguistics of Australia: a comprehensive guide Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.
Meakins, Felicity. . In Peter Bakker and Yaron Matras, Contact languages: a comprehensive guide Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.
