Research interests:

Language ideology
Language and identity
Language and ethnicity
Nationalism
Language and education
Multilingualism

I am primarily interested in how ideologies of language interact with the formation and negotiation of ethnic and national identities. I examine how these processes are mediated through the education system, and the implications in terms of social stratification and inequality. One strand of this research concerns identity among South Asian students in Hong Kong. More recently I have been investigating how discourses of language threat and revival may be used to underpin nationalist movements, most especially in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. I have also been working on several projects relating to language policy and national/spatial definition and negotiation, particularly in collaboration with Juldyz Smagulova.