Rakesh Mohan Bhatt

Rakesh Mohan Bhatt is a Professor of Linguistics and SLATE (Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education) at the University of Illinois, serving as Associate Head of the Linguistics Department. He holds affiliations in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Spanish and Portuguese programs, and Global Studies. His research focuses on sociolinguistics of language contact, migration, multilingualism, and World Englishes, with empirical work on Kashmiri, Hindi, and Indian English.

• Education: Ph.D. in Linguistics (UIUC, 1994), M.A. in Sociolinguistics (University of Pittsburgh, 1987)

Research interests include:

• Code-switching, language ideology, heritage language acquisition
• Syntax of Indo-Aryan languages and language contact

Recent projects examine sociolinguistic patterns of Kashmiri in diaspora and multilingual optimization in bilingual use. Awards include NSF funding and the Center for Advanced Study Associate Award (2010/11).

Teaching includes courses on sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and world Englishes. Grants include NSF support for heritage speaker research and development of Hindi online resources.