We invite indications of interest for two PhD positions with expertise in German Sign Language and Language Acquisition. The positions are within the “LeibnizDream” (leibniz dream.eu) project, approved by the European Research Council in the Synergy Grant 2019 call. The core research team of LeibnizDream will be based at three host institutions: University of Milan-Bicocca (UniMiB), Humboldt University (HU), Berlin and Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS), Berlin. The openings are distributed over two of the host institutions, namely at UniMiB and HU, Berlin:
at UniMiB (“Acquirer Group”, PI Maria Teresa Guasti):
one PhD position with main expertise in Language Acquisition
at HU (“Compressor Group”, PI Artemis Alexiadou):
one PhD position with main expertise in German Sign language
The positions are to start between September 1st, 2020 and January 1st, 2021. The contracts will be for three years. The salary at HU will be according to 65% E13 of the TVL pay-scale, while at UniMiB about 1300 euros per month plus research budget for travelling to conferences, and 50% increase for periods spent abroad longer than 1 month.
The duty of the positions is to carry out research for their PhD targeting one of the following areas
of morpho-syntax/semantics, 1) the expression of causation and agency, and 2) of motion events, 3) the binary connectives, 4) negative concepts such as exclusion, antonyms, and negation, 5) quantificational concepts including genericity and distributivity, and 6) dependencies most frequently analyzed as variable binding (wh-questions, relative clauses, degree clauses). The PhD students will be part of the larger research team.
The project aims for cultural diversity and gender balance of its staff. The project furthermore seeks to implement the principles of open science.
An expression of interest must be submitted by April 1, 2020 via electronic mail and include the following (1, 2 and 3 in PDF format, ideally in one PDF file): 1) a letter of intent specifying research experience and intended contributions to the project, as well as the starting date; 2) the curriculum vitae including a complete list of publications; 3) electronic copies one representative writing; and 4) the names and email addresses of at least two scholars to be contacted for letters of recommendation. Interested researchers wishing for secure communication with PGP can contact us for the necessary encryption key. Please note that the positions are still subject to availability of funding and a hiring procedure in compliance with institutional requirements will still be advertised.
Email for applications
at UniMiB s.rustioni3@campus.unimib.it
at HU, Berlin: artemis.alexiadou@hu-berlin.de