I Wayan Arka, currently Professor at The Australian National University, has a well-established international reputation in descriptive, typological, and theoretical linguistics that covers a wide range of topics from phonology, morphology and syntax to aspects of language usage in social, cultural, historical and political contexts. His contributions extend to the documentation of the Austronesian and Papuan languages of Indonesia with special treatment of endangered minority ethnolinguistic groups.

Over the past 20 years, he has developed pioneering language documentation practices facilitated by collaborative and interdisciplinary work between local communities, government bodies and research institutions in Australia and Indonesia. As an active researcher with twelve books and over 80 publications, his research is designed with clear local community impact in mind, with critical outcomes including local capacity building, community engagement, language-culture advocacy, literacy material development and improved access to local language learning.