Divya Chaudhry

Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies (Hindi-Urdu)

Divya Chaudhry received her Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Her doctoral research focused on novice teachers’ conceptual development and teacher educators’ mediation practices in a pre-service language teacher education program in India. She holds an undergraduate degree in elementary education with a specialization in language pedagogy from University of Delhi, India, and a master’s degree in linguistics from Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt University, Divya has taught Hindi at University of Florida, Rice University, and the University of Madison-Wisconsin’s intensive summer language institute. She has also taught English as a foreign language at the University of Florida’s intensive English program for three years. Her research interests include language pedagogy, Hindi conversation analysis, development of interactional and intercultural competencies by learners of Hindi-Urdu as a heritage/foreign language, and language teacher professional development. As an instructor, she seeks to create learning environments informed by students’ interests and needs and centered on fostering collaboration, reflecting real-life language use, and developing intercultural understanding and critical thinking skills. In her spare time, Divya immerses herself in books, bhangra, and Bollywood.