Dr Farah Nazir

Dr Farah Nazir is a linguist specialising in syntax, semantics, and multilingualism, with a particular focus on South Asian diaspora language communities (Pahari, Pothwari, Mirpuri, Panjabi, Urdu) in the UK. She is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Exeter, working on the AHRC-funded project Empathy, Narrative and Cultural Values (ENCV).

Before joining Exeter, Dr Nazir held academic and non-academic posts including Lecturer in Linguistics at Newcastle University (2021–2023), Lecturer in Speech Science at Leeds Beckett University, and a research role at the University of York on the MultiAge project, which examines bilingual language control and ageing among South Asian and Pakistani heritage language speakers. She continues to contribute to this collaborative research alongside her role at Exeter.

Her research examines how grammatical structure, multilingual practices, and language ideologies intersect in contexts shaped by migration and unequal recognition. A central strand of her work focuses on Pahari, Pothwari, Mirpuri, an under-described Indo-Aryan language spoken across Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and the UK diaspora. She works on complex predicates, including light verb constructions, and on code-switching in bilingual discourse, combining morphosyntactic analysis with sociolinguistic and community-engaged approaches, including its relevance to health practices. Within ENCV, she contributes a linguistic perspective on narrative, focusing on how patterns of language use shape meaning, interaction, and care.