Reza Arab

Dr Reza Arab is a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the School of Languages and Cultures. His expertise lies in pragmatics, cultural linguistics, and intercultural communication, with a focus on how humour, metaphor, and language practices shape belonging, identity, and interaction across cultural and institutional contexts. His research spans historical pragmatics, contrastive semantics, and discourse analysis, particularly in national settings. He has led and contributed to projects on humour in prison discourse, media representations, and political communication. Dr Arab is also the major convenor for English as an International Language (EIL) at UQ. Communication and media studies, Communication studies, Communication technology and digital media studies, Comparative language studies, Corpus linguistics, Cultural studies, Cultural studies of nation and region, Discourse and pragmatics, English language, Language studies, Language, Communication and Culture, Lexicography and semantics, Linguistic structures (incl. phonology, morphology and syntax), Linguistics, Middle Eastern languages, Migrant cultural studies, Multicultural, intercultural and cross-cultural studies, Sociolinguistics

[2026] Book Chapter: Having fun is a matter of taste: ‘funny’ words in French and Persian. Arab, Reza and Mullan, Kerry (2026). Having fun is a matter of taste: ‘funny’ words in French and Persian. Explorations in applied ethnolinguistics. (pp. 289-307) Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-81681-9_15 [2025] Journal Article: Situational irony in Australian prison radio: humour as a tool for coping and resistance. Arab, Reza and Anderson, Heather (2025). Situational irony in Australian prison radio: humour as a tool for coping and resistance. Media International Australia. doi: 10.1177/1329878x251403575 [2025] Conference Publication: Pragmatic considerations of the challenges of medical certification for international medical graduates in Australian general