[CogSci] Job ad

[Sabine Stoll]

Dear list administrator,

Would it be possible to post the following job ad?:

Thank you in advance,

Best regards, Sabine Stoll





3–5 DOCTORAL/POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS (4 years) at the Department of Comparative Language Science and the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE)


The Department of Comparative Language Science at the University of Zurich and the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE) invite applications for 3–5 4-year junior research positions (Postdoctoral Researcher and/or PhD) in typology, Indo-European linguistics, and first language acquisition. The positions are embedded in the interdisciplinary research project ‘The evolution of structural units in language’ funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Gerda-Zeltner Fellowship program.

The main goal of the project is to explore the evolution of core linguistic units over time, such as the transmission of various types of word-like units (e.g. phonological and grammatical words or various phrasal chunks). The project addresses this question in first language acquisition across diverse languages, in patterns of language evolution across typological samples, and in the history of Indo-European across different areal contexts. The project combines large-scale corpus studies with the analysis of typological databases and qualitative data acquisition. The team is led by experts in first language acquisition (Sabine Stoll), historical linguistics (Paul Widmer), and typological linguistics (Balthasar Bickel) in collaboration with several postdocs and senior researchers in the department.

The successful candidates will become part of a larger interdisciplinary research team situated in the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution <http://isle.uzh.ch/> and the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language <https://evolvinglanguage.ch/>.

The positions offered are open rank (PhD or Postdoc) in the following areas:

A: Indo-European linguistics, philology and historical linguistics, with a strong interest in comparative/typological/evolutionary questions and a solid background in qualitative data acquisition and analysis as well as at least some experience with quantitative methods. Possible focus areas are western Indo-European languages/Anatolian and eastern Indo-European languages/Indo-Iranian.

B: Typology and areal linguistics, with a strong interest in comparative and evolutionary questions. The ideal candidate has a solid background in both qualitative and quantitative methods of typological, areal and/or historical linguistics.

C: First language acquisition, with a strong interest in typological variation, corpus linguistics and quantitative methods. Solid background in a scripting language is required (preferred languages R or Python). The candidate will work with the ACQDIV database including longitudinal first language acquisition data (age range 2-4) of 15 typologically diverse languages.

Research environment:

We offer work in an interdisciplinary and international team located at the University of Zurich.  Researchers are expected to have a strong commitment to  interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork. Doctoral students will be embedded in the Linguistics Doctoral Program of the University of Zurich.
Postdoctoral positions include teaching obligations of maximally one course per semester. Salaries correspond to SNSF pay scales. 
The department places great emphasis on gender balance; we particularly encourage women to apply.

Application:

Starting date: September 1, 2021

The positions are available until filled; we start reviewing applications May 1, 2021. 

For consideration please compile the following documents into a single PDF labelled ‘LingUnits-YourSurname-Position.pdf’ (where Position is either “A”, “B”, or “C” and “PhD” or “Postdoc”, e.g. LingUnits-Meyer-A-PhD) and send to jobs at ivs.uzh.ch <mailto:jobs at ivs.uzh.ch>: 

- a cover letter (motivation and qualifications, 2 pages max); 
- curriculum vitae; 
- contacts of two referees; 
- writing sample (2 pages max, e.g. abstracts); 
- for PhD applications also transcripts of bachelor’s and master’s courses; 
- for Postdoc applications also a publication list and a dissertation abstract.

For questions contact paul.widmer at uzh.ch <mailto:paul.widmer at uzh.ch>.
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