Nikhat Shameem

Nikhat Shameem is a Fijian academic in the field of linguistics. Her research interests include language maintenance and shift of pidgins, creoles and minority languages, language teaching and assessment, and sociolinguistic surveys.^[1] Shameem also leads initiatives to preserve and revitalise the Fiji-Hindi language.^[2]

Biography

Shameem was born and raised in Suva, Fiji, and studied education at the University of the South Pacific.^[3] She completed a diploma in teaching English as a second language, and a PhD in applied linguistics, at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She completed a master's degree in business administration at the University of Cumbria, England, graduating in 2019.^[1][4]

Shammem worked for UNICEF in Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the Sudan, and returned to Fiji in 2018.^[4] In 2019, she was appointed interim director of the Fiji Higher Education Commission.^[4]

Shameem speaks Fiji Hindi and is active in preserving and revitalisting the language.^[2] In 2019, she published a book of poetry in Fiji Hindi, and is the only person to have written and published poetry in this language.^[3]

Publications

• Shameem, N. (1992). Arrival, and other stories. Wellington Multicultural Educational Resource Centre.^[5]
• Shameem, N. (2019). Let the conch speak. Nikhat Shameem.^[6]