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Dr. Tej Bhatia, a 44-year faculty member of Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences and globally recognized for his work in linguistics, arrived in the United States as a nervous teenager pursuing an education and a better life.

A self-described “three-time refugee,” Bhatia said he set foot in the United States for the first time unsure if his English level would suffice for his college classes. Now, more than 50 years later, he has authored 17 books, consulted for national security agencies and spent decades with SU’s Language, Literature, and Linguistics department.

“I still think some power upstairs was helping me get here,” Bhatia said. “I love this department. I have absolutely no regrets these last 44 years. ”

The professor emeritus entered his first semester of retirement this fall. His colleagues in the LLL department said Bhatia’s arrival in central New York has since left a lasting impact on SU’s once-small linguistics programs.

Bhatia was born in Multan, Pakistan in 1945 and moved through multiple refugee camps in the years following the partition of British India. As his family moved closer to Delhi and he grew into adolescence, he never imagined a life in America or a career in linguistics, he said.

After his father’s death, Bhatia, then 15, described years of “crisis” for his family. His mother – a Pakistani immigrant – had never been to school and was illiterate, he said. Without his father and newly-independent India’s nonexistent social services system, Bhatia became responsible for feeding his family.

Bhatia’s father was an engineer – an area of work he said his family expected him to pursue. Despite his family’s history in engineering and mathematics, Bhatia was fascinated by language and dreamed of a career studying speech. After a long, strenuous search for an entry-level position or apprenticeship, Bhatia was introduced to the United States Peace Corps in India.

For months, Bhatia traveled throughout India teaching Hindi with the Peace Corps before the American Institute of Indian Studies hired him. It was here that he first began to pick up English, he said. His work with the Peace Corps introduced him to Americans and improved his English. When his supervisors encouraged him to apply to universities in America, Bhatia hesitated.

“None of my professors or teachers ever came from America. It would be just useless to think of going to America,” Bhatia said.

After months of consideration and pressure from leaders at the AIIS, Bhatia applied to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s linguistics program. To his surprise, he was accepted.

His first day on campus, Bhatia said he felt intimidated by the “gargantuan” school and wished he had enough money to buy a ticket home.

Despite his initial concerns, Bhatia quickly fell in love with his studies and the university. After earning his Master of Arts in Linguistics, he enrolled in Urbana-Champaign’s Ph.D. program. Upon earning his doctorate, he began the search for a faculty position.

After serving as a visiting lecturer at the University of British Columbia, Bhatia’s next stop would be a lasting one. In 1979, he was hired as an assistant professor of linguistics and South Asian studies at SU. His wife, Dr. Shobha Bhatia — whom he met while at UBC — soon joined him as the first female faculty member at SU’s College of Engineering.

“I heard there was an opening (at SU), I applied for it and I got it, that’s it,” Bhatia said. “That’s the only application I ever sent in my life.”

Bhatia quickly climbed the ranks in SU’s LLL department in his first years as a professor. In 1985, he was promoted to associate professor and named director of the Linguistic Studies program.

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Earlier that year, Dr. Jaklin Kornfilt arrived on campus as an assistant professor in linguistics, one of four women who joined the department at the time. As both a professor without tenure and a woman, she said she spent much of her early time on campus uncomfortable speaking her mind. Bhatia became one of Kornfilt’s earliest mentors, as she said he treated her with respect and helped her establish a voice in the department.

Kornfilt said Bhatia is one of a kind in his joyfulness, friendliness and generosity toward students and colleagues. She said that he had a “massive” impact on the LLL department, and his passion for his work has allowed the department to expand course offerings, resources and areas of study.

Bhatia said he spent his first years teaching “run of the mill” linguistics courses to undergraduate students but longed for more. With tenure, he began to introduce more innovative classes, creating courses in the world varieties of English, language acquisition and global varieties of bilingualism.

“He made us more visible as a university-wide program,” Kornfilt said. “We are certainly a stronger and larger program than linguistics was when I first came to SU … this is due to a variety of people, but it begins with him.”

As Bhatia rose through the ranks at the university, his global presence grew as well. He has served as a visiting professor at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, All India Institute of Medical Science and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

His travels introduced him to some of the most distinguished academics in his field, he said. Bhatia’s colleagues said his name quickly became commonplace in the world of linguistics studies.

Professor Rajesh Kumar, a colleague of Bhatia’s and professor of linguistics at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, described him as one of the “top 25” most accomplished individuals in his field.

In the later half of his career, Bhatia became known for his expertise in the world of forensic linguistics and the use of language structure to extract social and psychological information. As conflicts grew in the Middle East in the 1990s, Bhatia became a correspondent with members of multiple domestic and international intelligence agencies, he said

In his studies of forensic linguistics, Bhatia had done extensive work on linguistic fingerprinting, the concept that all voices are completely unique due to language, speech pattern and pronunciation, similar to human fingerprints.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Bhatia worked with the FBI to help identify voices in an intercepted phone call.

His speciality in linguistic fingerprinting also led Bhatia to work on projects with the U.S. Attorney General’s office and other government agencies where he continued to help law enforcement identify voices in recordings.

In 2008, Bhatia earned his place on the board of AIIS, where he first worked as a teenager in India. A decade later, he was named president of the International Association of World Englishes, an organization that coordinates the largest conference in the field of linguistics annually.

Now at the end of their careers at SU, the Bhatias both marked their final semester teaching this past spring.

Bhatia’s colleagues said they know him best for the joy he brings to the otherwise serious world of academia. Shobha Bhatia said that while he has amassed an impressive career, he has never wavered in his love of his students and peers.

“When I think of (Bhatia), all I can think about is what a sweet and amicable person he is,” Jeff Macswan, a University of Maryland linguistics professor and longtime friend of Bhatia, said. “He is a friend to so many colleagues across the world who owe a debt of gratitude to him for his great support over the years.”

Bhatia said that, to this day, he cannot believe the path his academic and professional career has taken.

Despite his 44-year career coming to an end, Bhatia is not resting. He now serves as an emeritus professor in the Linguistics Studies department, where he will continue his ongoing research projects. He is also working on multiple books.

“I got blessed,” Bhatia said. “If I had had just a typical, monotonous (job), I would have been dead.”

Published on September 26, 2024 at 12:45 am

Contact Duncan: digreen@syr.edu