Skip to main content

Liv Solveig Thorstensson Davila

Associate Professor

Research Interests

My research focusses on languages, literacies and communication writ large as they relate to learner identities, educational experiences, and broader social processes (e.g., of inclusion or exclusion).  While this research has primarily focused on adolescent immigrant and refugee learners in public K-12 institutions, as well as their families, and teachers, I also explore language access and equity in other community and institutional contexts, such as immigrant-serving organizations, and in medical education.

Overarching research foci:

  • Multilingualism and learning in school and society
  • Intersections of language and literacy, race, ethnicity, gender, and social class
  • Qualitative research in applied linguistics: ethnographic methods, discourse analysis, sensory/embodied methods

Education

Education, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Teaching English as a Second Language, M.Ed., University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Comparative Education, MA, University of Minnesota
Anthropology, French, BA, Grinnell College

Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
Co-Director of Graduate Studies, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
Associate Professor, Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity
Associate Professor, European Union Center
Associate Professor, Biomedical and Translational Sciences
Associate Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Recent Publications

Dávila, L. T. (2025). Embodied reflexivity and researching the literacy practices of an adolescent multilingual refugee who is d/Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing. In A. K. Kibler, & F. J. Karam (Eds.), Innovative Qualitative Methodologies in Multilingual Literacy Development Research: Amplifying voices from immigrant, transnational, and refugee communities (pp. 184-205). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.11.10dav

Dávila, L. T., & Kolano, L. Q. (2025). Immigrant-serving leaders’ perspectives on bridging home and school in crisis situations. Equity in Education Society. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/27526461251319785

Davila, L. T., & Ogwal, S. A. (2024). An Affect-Centered Analysis of Congolese Immigrant Parent Perspectives on Past-Present-Future Learning in School and at Home. In Educating African Immigrant Youth Schooling and Civic Engagement in K–12 Schools

Sanders-Smith, S. C., & T. Dávila, L. (2024). ‘It has to be in a natural way’: a critical exploration of co-teaching relationships in trilingual preschool classrooms in Hong Kong. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(4), 1182-1196. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2021.1957902

T. Dávila, L. (2024). Immigrant Outreach and Language Access During First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Applied Linguistics, 45(3), 449-463. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad035

View all publications on Illinois Experts