Bairam Khan

Senior Lecturer in Hindi-Urdu

Dr. Bairam Khan is a linguist and educator, currently serving as Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University. He has also worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Middle East and South Asia Studies Program at Wake Forest University. Previously, he taught in the South Asian Language Program and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan, and offered formal and applied linguistics courses at Aligarh Muslim University in India.  Dr. Khan earned his B.A. and M.A. in Linguistics, and Ph.D. in Linguistics from Aligarh Muslim University, with his doctoral research exploring the philosophical foundations of linguistic thought through Ḳhān-e Ārzū's Muṡmir. He further enhanced his expertise with an M.A. in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan, focusing on design and technologies for learning across cultures, as well as an M.A. in English Literature from Swami Vivekanand Subharti University.  His research interests include multilingualism, media linguistics, metaphor theory, language variation and change, and the application of linguistics in real-world contexts. He has published and presented internationally on topics such as consonantal variation in Hindi-Urdu loanwords and metaphors in South Asian languages, with an edited volume Metaphorical Mapping and South Asia currently under review. Dr. Khan regularly presents at leading conferences such as AAS-in-Asia and SALA, and delivers invited talks on themes like epistemic injustice, linguistic bias, and intercultural communication.  A passionate advocate for multilingualism and linguistic justice, Dr. Khan actively works to bridge linguistic theory and practice, fostering intercultural understanding and empowering students to engage critically with language in society.