An Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE) at McGill University, Dr. Kalan's work focuses on creating a sociology of literacy that explores the cultural, political, and power-relational dimensions of linguistic and textual practices. He employs discourse analysis, ethnography, practitioner research, narrative inquiry, and arts-based inquiry to study the sociological aspects of reading, writing, and language education. His research is particularly focused on understanding the experiences of minoritized and racialized students in multicultural and multilingual contexts.
He investigates organic writing practices that occur beyond the current narrow institutional categorizations of writing styles, genres, and rhetorical norms. His work seeks to learn from literacy practices that are unofficial, underground, community-based, plurilingual, and multi-semiotic. Additionally, he is keen to explore non-Western forms of language and literacy education.
His research is often interdisciplinary, drawing on philosophy, sociology, history, and literary theory. Where relevant, he incorporates creative academic genres, such as poetic scholarship, into his work.