Morphosyntactic Production in Stroke-induced Agrammatic Aphasia: A Cross-linguistic Machine Learning Approach

Job description

A position as a Research Assistant is available at the Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing) in the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo. The position will be paid by hourly wage, with an estimated equivalent to a 35-40% position, for a period of 1 year (2021-2022). The contract may be renewed depending on performance for up to one year.

The Research Assistant will contribute to the Research Council of Norway funded project Morphosyntactic Production in Stroke-induced Agrammatic Aphasia: A Cross-linguistic Machine Learning Approach (Machine Learning Aphasia). The aim of the project is to gain insight into aphasia, a condition characterized by language/communication problems as a result of brain damage. In particular, Machine Learning Aphasia focuses on stroke-induced agrammatic aphasia and investigates grammatical (morphosyntactic) aspects of sentence production related to the verb, such as subject-verb agreement, tense/time reference, and sentential negation. The project focuses on five languages: Norwegian, Greek, Italian, Russian, and English

The Research Assistant will help with the Greek-related part of the project (for a list of tasks see below). S/he should have excellent Greek and English language skills (oral and written) and have been trained in Theoretical or Applied Linguistics and Psycholinguistics/Neurolinguistics. Prior experience with development of psycholinguistic tasks, psycholinguistic/neuropsychological testing, data collection and analysis, and transcription and/or analysis/annotation of transcripts of (semi)spontaneous speech is an advantage.

Tasks include:

• Development of experimental linguistic tasks in Greek
• Data collection in Greece
• Data transcription
• Scoring answers following the guidelines developed for the project
• Data analysis
• Analysis and annotation of Greek transcripts of (semi)spontaneous speech for diagnostic and research purposes
• Literature search and review
• Contribution to writing of reports and scientific papers

For more information about Machine Learning Aphasia, see the project website.

Qualification requirements

• A Master’s degree
• Excellent command of Greek (oral and written, including academic language)
• Good oral and written communication skills in English
• Personal suitability and motivation for the position
• Experience with academic research

We offer

• Salary NOK 458 900 per annum depending on qualifications
• A professionally stimulating working environment
• Membership in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Attractive welfare benefits

How to apply

The application must include:

• Application letter describing the applicant’s qualifications and motivation for the position
• Curriculum Vitae (with a list of education, positions, research experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activities, including a complete list of publications)
• Transcript of records of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Applicants with education from a foreign university must attach an explanation of their university’s grading system

Please note that all documents must be in English or a Scandinavian language.

Educational certificates, master theses and the like are not to be submitted with the application, but applicants may be asked to submit such information or works later.

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system. Please follow the link “Apply for this job”.

Short-listed candidates will be invited for an interview.

Formal regulations

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. We also want to have employees with diverse expertise, combinations of subjects, life experience and perspectives. We will make adjustments for employees who require this.

If there are qualified applicants with special needs, gaps in their CVs or immigrant backgrounds, we will invite at least one applicant in each of these groups to an interview.

Contact information

• Project leader: Valantis Fyndanis, valantis.fyndanis@iln.uio.no
• Administrative contact person for the project: Fredrik Eugen Christiansen, f.e.christiansen@iln.uio.no
• HR Officer: Steffen Remvik, steffen.remvik@hf.uio.no

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