Postdoc Position: Social Interaction and Language Technology

1. Introduction

Are you interested in social interaction and language technology? As a postdoctoral researcher, you will investigate topics at the intersection of human language and interactive interfaces. You will be able to design your own research projects and form part of the core staff of a transdisciplinary project aimed at better understanding how language and technology shape each other.

2. Job description

The position is part of the Futures of Language project, in which we study interactive language use as it adapts to major sociotechnical transitions. Questions we ask in the project include: What are the interactional foundations of language? How do current and future language technologies augment or exploit them? And how can we reimagine our linguistic futures? Many current language technologies bear the mark of a legacy that privileges text over talk, information over interaction, and automation over agency. Futures of Language aims to understand what happens when we invert those priorities.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will conduct and publish original research on topics at the intersection of language, social interaction and technology. You will also carry out academic service in the context of the project – from co-organising workshops to carrying out science communication – and you will be able to contribute to supervision. There is a significant degree of freedom in terms of research questions and methods, but in general we are interested in interactive interfaces (text and voice) as places where language and technology co-evolve, and in global linguistic diversity as a reservoir of humanity’s artisanal technologies of language.

3. Profile

• You have a PhD in Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Communication and Information Sciences, or a related discipline pursuing empirical research on social interaction (e.g. HCI, STS, linguistic anthropology, sociology).
• You are eager to engage with fundamental questions about language and technology. You bring solid technical skills and deep, critical understanding that you wield for thoughtful analyses of empirical data.
• You possess excellent communications skills in English, with a talent for connecting people and transformative science-society communication.
• You are enthusiastic about transdisciplinary research. A background in empirical work on social interaction is considered an asset.
• You are passionate about supervising students and interested in collaborating closely with PhD candidates and other project members.
• You have experience publishing in scientific journals and an enthusiasm for reading widely and writing well.

We are interested to hear from highly motivated candidates even if they do not check all the boxes of the requirements. Do feel free to get in touch if you have any questions beforehand.

4. We are

The Centre for Language Studies (CLS) is a research institute dedicated to the understanding of language and the way we use it. Our researchers study this topic from different perspectives and in several contexts, using a variety of innovative research methods. CLS aims to conduct language science that matters: fundamental research that sheds new light on language and that provides value to organisations and audiences outside the academic world.

Futures of Language is part of a vibrant research environment, which includes the CLS research groups Language and Social Interaction (LANSI) and Language and Speech Technology (LST), the interdisciplinary hub on digitisation and society (iHub), and the Critical AI Literacy project at the Faculty of Social Sciences. This postdoctoral position is funded by a Vici grant awarded to PI Dingemanse and will be embedded in the AI: Language and Communication Technologies’ section of the Language and Communication department. Key collaborators in the research include Dr Marlou Rasenberg and Dr Andreas Liesenfeld.

5. We offer

• We will give you a temporary employment contract for 1 year at 0.8 FTE, with the prospect of an extension for another 2 years (so the position can last up to 3 years total). In case full time employment is preferred the total contract duration would be reduced accordingly.
• Your salary within salary scale 11 depends on your previous education and number of years of (relevant) work experience. The amounts in the scale are based on a 38-hour working week.
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus. 
• We offer Dual Career Coaching. The Dual Career Coaching assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands. 
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20. 

6. Practical information and applying

You can apply only via the button below. Address your letter of application to Mark Dingemanse. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application.

You will be asked to provide a Research Statement (max. 800 words excluding references) outlining your possible research contributions and how these will build on your expertise. Project members are united in their fundamental interest in language and social interaction and a critical and technically informed perspective on AI and language technology. To help ground your research statement, we recommend you study the Futures of Language project description and identify which strands you are most passionate about.

The first interviews will take place on 11 September. Any second interview will take place on 25 September. You will preferably start your employment as soon as possible.

We can imagine you're curious about our application procedure. It describes what you can expect during the application procedure and how we handle your personal data and internal and external candidates.