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.

PhD position in First Language Acquisition

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 own further training and skill development. Further, the position requires fieldwork, i.e. the candidate will spend long periods in a remote village in Nepal to record children and adults and 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 candidate is expected to learn Nepali and Gurung in the first months of employment.

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.

Further, cultural sensitivity is a must. UZH offers excellent opportunities and strong support for career development. Salaries are internationally competitive: Salary ranges, guidelines for employees in SNSF-funded projects SNCF salary ranges

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

Department of Comparative Language Science