Professor Devyani Sharma in the Department of Linguistics has been awarded the prestigious accolade of Fellow of the British Academy.
Fellows are the major category of fellowship at the Academy. They are scholars who have attained distinction in a branch of study, such as the humanities and the social sciences. Election is a mark of distinction, as only a very small number of scholars in any field are elected. Read more about Fellowships here.
The award recognises Professor Sharma’s outstanding contributions to the fields of social and cognitive basis of language variation and change, new dialects of English, bilingualism, as well as accent variation and social perception. Professor Sharma has written widely on these topics, including her research on World Englishes and British Asian English. She has served as associate editor for the Journal of Sociolinguistics and co-authored the widely-used volume Research Methods in Linguistics with Rob Podesva.
Current research from Professor Sharma includes the Generations of London English project, which investigates language and social change in English in London in real time. In her own research, Professor Sharma investigates why individuals develop and use a particular range of speaking styles, particularly in situations of social contact, bilingualism, and migration.
Through a series of impactful projects engaging with the general public, public and private organisations, and the government, Prof. Sharma has had a significant impact on public discourses and education around accent bias and social perception of language. Prof. Sharma co-developed the Accent Bias Britain online resource and co-authored a Sutton Trust report on accent and social mobility, which was widely covered by national media. In an interview with the Guardian, Prof. Sharma explained that “Accent-based discrimination actively disadvantages certain groups at key junctures for social mobility, such as job interviews.” She further highlighted that “this creates a negative cycle, whereby regional, working-class and minority-ethnic accents are heard less in some careers or positions of authority, reinforcing anxiety and marginalisation for those speakers.”
Professor Sharma also developed an online resource, Teach Real English!, for use by A-Level English Language teachers and students across the country. In 2013, Prof. Sharma co-founded the public engagement initiative Multilingual Capital.
Professor Devyani Sharma is a professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London.
Professor Sharma is the fourth professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London to achieve British Academy Fellow status, after: