Dr Tanya Linaker joined King’s College London Language Centre in 2002. She holds a BA in English and Education from Voronezh University, Russia (1992), an MA in Russian Studies from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London (2004), an MA in Applied Linguistics from Birkbeck, University of London (2017), and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Reading (2025). She speaks Russian, German and English. 

Tanya is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is also Team Leader for Slavic and Middle Eastern Languages (2023-27), Departmental Education Lead (2024-27) and Programme Director for Short Courses (2025-2027).

As a Department Education Lead, Tanya is responsible for the educational policy of the department in line with King's College educational strategy. As a Programme Director for the Short Courses, she has the overall responsibility for the pedagogical and administrative leadership of the Programme. As the Team Leader for Slavic and Middle Eastern Languages, she coordinates the teaching of these languages on all programmes.

Research, Scholarly projects and Academic Awards

King's College London: Widening Participation in Foreign Language Teaching (2010)

Reducing Attainment Gap (2020)

Decolonising Foreign Language Teaching Curriculum (2023)

Decolonising Less Commonly Taught Languages Curriculum (2024)

Academic Publications:

Linaker, T. (2005) A Witch, a Bitch, or a Goddess? Female Voices Transcending Gender As Heard and Recorded by Chekhov, Mansfield, and Nabokov. Slovo 17(2), 165-178.2.

Linaker, T. (2019). Language Teacher/Translator Gendered Identity Construction: From Dilemmatic to Agentive—Big Lives Through Small Stories. In (pp. 45-68). Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27709-3_33.

Linaker, T. (2023a). Identity construction in the UK higher education: How cultural gendered identity is shaped through leadership practice. Training, Language and Culture, 7(1), 70-85.4.

Linaker, T. (2023b). From professional support to academic pathway – negotiating professional identity in a time of organisational change (case study of two middle managers at a UK university language centre). Issues of Applied Linguistics. 104-132. 10.25076/vpl.52.05.

Richardson, C., Jones, J., & Linaker, T. (2024). Decolonising Language Teaching: More Than a Box-ticking Exercise. In The BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum: Equity and Inclusion in Educational Research and Practice (pp. 131-139). Emerald Publishing Limited.