Prior to her appointment at King’s, Lavanya was a researcher on the following projects:

Two research projects that I have been involved with include an ESRC-funded project that looked at dialect development and style in the Punjabi community in Southall, London (2008-10), and a Leverhulme-funded project that examined the multilingual development among Sri Lankan Tamil adults in London (2015-18).

I am currently the PI of a project entitled, ‘Communicative practices and memory culturalization processes across borders: two conflict-affected case-studies’ funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2024-26).

Research interests

• Sociolinguistics
• Language and migration
• Diaspora
• Linguistic ethnography
• Qualitative research methods

Teaching

BA modules

4SSEL004 Analysing English 1

MA modules

7SSEA011 Language, Identity & Culture
7SSEA006 Researching Linguistic Diversity
7SSEM038 The Social Context of Education