Lauren Squires conducts research on English language variation, sociolinguistic perception, and language and media. Squires is particularly interested in how notions of "standard" English are produced and reinforced across communicative contexts, how they manifest in real-time language processing and what this tells us about the structure of linguistic and social knowledge. She is also interested in mass media discourse and ideologies of language.

Squires has published articles in Language in Society; Journal of Sociolinguistics; Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience; American Speech; Journal of English Linguistics; Journal of Linguistic Anthropology; and Discourse, Context, & Media. Her book chapters also appear in several edited volumes. Squires serves as the Book Review Editor for Language, the journal of the Linguistic Society of America. She also sits on the editorial boards of Discourse, Context, & Media and the Language and Computers book series (Brill).