PhD Position in First Language Acquisition

The NCCR Evolving Language (www.evolvinglanguage.ch) invites applications for one PhD position to work in a project studying and documenting the use and the acquisition of Gurung, a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Western Nepal.

The NCCR is a Swiss National Center of Competence in Research with the goal of creating a new discipline, Evolutionary Language Science, that targets the past and future of language. The center consists of leading scientists from traditionally separated academic domains, which allows us to harvest the diverse expertise from the humanities, social sciences, computational sciences, natural sciences and medicine towards a broadscale interdisciplinary collaboration.

Employment is at 80% FTE (including 10% teaching assistant tasks). The position is a training opportunity and the successful candidate is expected to use the remaining unpaid 20% for their own further training and skill development.

The successful candidate is expected to acquire working knowledge of Nepali in the first phase of  their employment. Further, the position requires fieldwork, i.e. the candidate will spend several months at a time in a remote village in Nepal to record children and adults, and to conduct experiments.

The successful candidate has a background in linguistics and/or developmental psychology or language acquisition research. Familiarity with languages of Nepal, command of Nepali, fieldwork experience, and good data science skills and experience in conducting experiments are welcome assets.

The NCCR Evolving Language places great emphasis on teamwork and multidisciplinary perspectives. Excellent communication and collaboration skills are essential. Further, cultural sensitivity is a must.

The position is financed up to 4 years, subject to yearly performance review; the PhD position leads to a dissertation under the main supervision of Professor Sabine Stoll together with other colleagues. 

UZH offers excellent opportunities and strong support for career development. Salaries are internationally competitive: Salary ranges, guidelines for employees in SNSF-funded projects (PDF)

We take gender balance and diversity seriously in our hiring decisions. 

The position is located at the Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich.

Start of employment will be September 1, 2024, or upon agreement.
We will begin reviewing applications in May and keep the position open until filled.

Please upload a cover letter that explains what motivates you to apply to this position, your CV, names and e-mail addresses of two referees, one or two samples of your work, and your transcripts with grades in a single PDF via Jobs UZH. The name of the PDF should include your name and end in _GurungProject.pdf.

Please direct all inquiries to admin AT ivs.uzh.ch .