Dr. Kanjana is a linguist and an historian. She is an associate professor of Thai language in the Department of World Languages & Cultures and is a research affiliate at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University. Her work examines the notion of "Thainess" and how Thais define, perform, understand, transmit, and regulate "Thainess" both in Thailand and in the US diaspora, in the past and in the present, including the role(s) that the Thai language may or may not have in these processes.