My linguistic research draws upon Indigenous ontologies of language and a desire-based approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (Clark, 2016). My work proposes ways for non-Indigenous researchers to explore, without appropriation and with respect for the incommensurability of Indigenous ways of knowing, the possibility that language emerges from the Earth itself (Clark, 2026).

My original applications of my desire-based CDA were to ethnographies of gender and sexuality (Clark, 2012), focusing particularly upon embodiment (Clark, 2016) and compulsory heterosexuality (Clark, 2021). The implications of a desire-based CDA, however, extend well beyond the field of gender and sexuality, inviting questions about and challenges to Eurocentric, (post)humanist understandings of language.

My most recent work applies my desire-based methodology to postcolonial inquiry. I am investigating historical texts, specifically 19th century discourses on American Indigenous languages, to explore ways of decolonising the language/matter divide (Clark, 2026), with implications for rethinking relationships with Artificial Intelligence (Clark, in preparation).

Parallel to my academic research I am developing a portfolio of fiction (Clark, 2020 and 2021) that uses narrative themes that challenge the Euro-Western understandings of language. My blog, Grammar for Dreamers, showcases flash fiction pieces that explore new ways of understanding the relationship between language, humans and the Earth. I discuss these pieces in my podcast, Structured Visions.