
Biography
Research Interests
My research interests include language and identity, medium of education, gender, intersectionality, English language teacher education, and discourse analysis with a specific focus on interview and narrative analysis. My research centers around the generation, study and analysis of oral narratives recounted within qualitative research interviews. I am especially interested in examining the intersectionalities of gender, patriarchy, social class, and linguistic educational policies in the complex, rapidly evolving, post-colonial context of India. I have studied these issues from multiple perspectives and have utilized Positioning Theory, Stance, Stylization, Membership Categorization Analysis, and Conversation Analysis as analytical lenses to examine their multi-layered complexities. I am also interested in examining issues of language teacher agency as they intersect with linguistic educational policies in post-colonial contexts.
My publications have appeared in journals such as Applied Linguistics, Applied Linguistics Review, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, Multilingua, and Pragmatics and Society and in volumes for Benjamins, Caslon, Multilingual Matters, Palgrave, and Routledge. I am also the author of Professional Identity Constructions of Indian Women (Benjamins, 2016). This book is part of their series titled ‘Studies in Narrative’ which is edited by Michael Bamberg.
Research
Selected Research
- Sandhu. P. (2019). English language instructors, medium of education, and professional agency: An Indian perspective. In H. Kayi-Aydar, X. Gao, E. Miller, M. Varghese & G. Vitanova (Eds.). Theorizing and Analyzing Language Teacher Agency (pp: 237-256). Bristol, UK and Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA: Multilingual Matters.
- Sandhu, P. (2019). Constructing desirable brides: Membership categorization, medium of education and arranged marriages. Pragmatics and Society. Special Issue Edited by M. Prior and S. Talmy.
- Sandhu, P. (2018). English medium education, patriarchy, and emerging social structures: Narratives of Indian women. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 253, 55-78.
- Sandhu, P., & Higgins, C. (2016). Identity in post-colonial contexts. In S. Preece (Ed.),The Routledge Handbook of Language and Identity (pp. 179-194). London and New York: Routledge.
- Sandhu, P. (2016). Priti Sandhu’s vignette. In S. Mann, The Research Interview: Reflective Practice and Reflexivity in Research Processes, (pp. 139-143). Basingstoke, HA: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Sandhu, P. (2016). Negative self-categorization, stance, affect, and affiliation in autobiographical storytelling. In M. T. Prior & G. Kasper (Eds.), Talking Emotion in Multilingual Settings, (pp. 153-176). John Benjamins. (Series: Pragmatics and Beyond, edited by Anita Fetzer).
- Sandhu, P. (2016). Professional Identity Constructions of Indian Women. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (Series: Studies in Narrative, Series Editor: Michael Bamberg).
- Higgins, C., & Sandhu, P. (2015). Researching identity through narrative approaches. In M. Bigelow and J. Enser-Kananen (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Educational Linguistics (pp. 50-61). London and New York: Routledge.
- Sandhu, P. (2015). Stylizing voices, stances, and identities related to medium of education in India. Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 34(2): 211–235.
- Sandhu, P. (2015). Resisting linguistic marginalization in professional spaces: Constructing multi-layered oppositional stances. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 369-391.
- Sandhu, P. (2014). The interactional and narrative construction of normative and resistant discourses about Hindi and English. Applied Linguistics, 35(1), 29-47.
- Sandhu, P. (2014). ‘Who does she think she is?’ Vernacular medium and failed romance. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 13(1), 16–33.
Research Advised
- Alharthi, Ahmad Abdulmajeed A. Breaking Away from Binaries: Teaching Writing with Critical Realist Sensibilities. 2023. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Walker, Thomas Joseph. English Language Teachers' Pre-Service Identity Constructions: A Narrative-Focused Critical Ethnography. 2022. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Lundberg, Margaret. 'Inhabiting the Habitus': Identity, Belonging, and Becoming in the Narratives of Mature Women Returners at the University of Washington Tacoma. 2022. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Wang, Yan. Navigating through Challenges: Multilingual Preservice Language Teachers’ Identity (Re)construction. 2021. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Bergstrom, Tait Caleb. Uptake of Educational Texts in Multilingual Composition Classrooms. 2019. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.