I am a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, where I teach linguistics courses. I joined the University of Colombo in 2018, prior to which I served at the University of Kelaniya for 15 years. My teaching experience includes designing and teaching courses in English as a Second Language as well as other linguistics courses in the fields of language acquisition (by children and adults) and social aspects of language such as language and identity.
My research interests are in the areas of discourse studies, language and education policies, and Sinhala pragmatics. I am currently working on three research projects: academic freedom in universities; the impact of World Bank lending on Sri Lankan universities; Sinhala pragmatics. I recently completed a small-scale study on children’s digital literacy.
My publications appear in the journals Applied Linguistics, Journal of Education Policy, Qualitative Research among others. I am the Assistant Editor of the University of Colombo’s flagship journal, University of Colombo Review, and a member of the editorial board of the Qualitative Research journal.
I maintain two online bibliographies of research on Sri Lanka: Biblioseks (on sexuality-related research) and Language in Sri Lanka (on Sri Lankan languages), and blog on research at Simplify. You can also find me on twitter (@Kauship1), Bluesky and Instagram (@ze_ditcher).
I am also the administrator of two student-produced sites on digital media and linguistics: How do children language? and Apps for Kids