Researcher linguistics

Description of the workplace

The Walk and Talk research team is hosted at the Centre for Languages and Literature located within the Joint Faculty of Humanities and Theology at Lund University. We conduct innovative and comparative research on the mobile speech situation among traditionally mobile Indigenous foragers at the intersection of language description and documentation, linguistic typology and anthropological linguistics. Walk and Talk is funded by the European Research Council in the form of a Starting Grant which started on January 1st 2025. The research team is led by Dr. Karolin Obert and will include three postdoctoral researchers as well as administrative and technical staff. We are now looking for a driven postdoctoral researcher with experience in the description and documentation of an Indigenous language spoken by a traditionally mobile group. The advertised position plays a central role in the group, focusing on innovative documentation of mobile conversation situations among traditionally mobile Indigenous groups and contributing to a dynamic research environment dedicated to scientific curiosity and excellence.

We offer

Lund University is a public authority which means that employees get particular benefits, generous annual leave and an advantageous occupational pension scheme. We offer good conditions for work/life balance. The position comes with financial support for fieldwork and conference travel as well as publication support. You will be working in an international team of field linguists and receive individual research and career training. Read more on the University website about being a Lund University employee Jobba hos oss | Lunds universitet

 
Work duties and areas of responsibility

Your duties will include research, i.e., the documentation and description of mobile speech situations in and with the community of your expertise in the field. The approach is linguistic as well as anthropological, and you are expected to document, describe and compare conversations while walking in an extant traditional hunter-gatherer community. Your work will benefit from a combination of modern techniques for data collection and documentation: (1) audiovisual recording and annotation (to capture the dynamics of moving speech situations); (2) geotagging (for geographical mapping); and (3) digital archiving in a corpus environment. Teaching, supervision and other administrative duties may comprise a maximum of 20% of the position.

Qualifications

Requirements for employment are:

• A Ph.D. or an international degree deemed equivalent. This requirement must be fulfilled no later than the position’s start date. The applicant is responsible for supplementing their application within this time with documentation that proves the completion of the doctoral degree. The supplement should be emailed to Arthur Holmer (arthur.holmer@ling.lu.se)
• A doctoral degree in a subject relevant to the research task (e.g., linguistics or anthropology).
• Expertise and experience from: (1) field-based linguistic and/or anthropological research and documentation, (2) an established relationship with a traditionally mobile community ideally in Africa.
• Proficiency in written and spoken English at academic level.

Additional qualifications for the position are:

• Experience in language documentation techniques within one or more of the following areas: (1) audio/video, (2) mobile recordings with action cameras, (3) geotagging.
• Skills in using documentation relevant software such as ELAN, Praat, SayMore, GIS processing software such as Basecamp or QGis.
• Proficiency in the language spoken in the community that is to be studied.
• Experience of an empirical environment in the form of an extant hunter-gatherer community.

Research expertise and established relationship with an Indigenous community that would welcome this project is the foremost criterion for employment. The evaluation of applicants will take account of their research profile, experience and knowledge.

How to apply
You apply for the position via the University’s recruitment system.

The application must include:

• A CV and a copy of your Ph.D. degree. In case the prospective degree date is after the application deadline (no longer than three months), please provide a letter from your supervisor about the likelihood of obtaining the degree.
• A cover letter describing how you meet the qualification requirements and why you are interested in the position.
• A statement laying out your prior relationship with the community and how its participation in this project can potentially benefit the community.

The application can include:

Any other documents to which you wish to draw attention (copies of degree certificates, grade transcripts, details of referees, letters of recommendation, etc.)