UiT The Arctic University of Norway, The Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education has a Post-doctoral Research Fellowship in Linguistics within Formal and Experimental Semantics available in the Department of Language and Culture. The position is affiliated to the research group CASTLFish and is a part of the project on Modal Concepts and Compositionality: New Directions in Experimental Semantics funded by the Research Council of Norway. A description of the project can be found here:

https://gillianramchandblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/modalmadnessprop.pdf

The appointment is a fixed term position for a period of three years.

The Post-doctoral Research Fellowship aims to qualify the researcher for work in senior academic positions. A candidate may not be appointed to more than one fixed term position as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the same institution.

For further information about the position (and the project), please contact the:

• Principal Investigator on the project, Professor Gillian Ramchand (gillian.ramchand@uit.no), or
• Head of DepartmentF Eystein Dahl, phone +47 77 64 42 90, email: eystein.dahl@uit.no.

AffiliationThe position is affiliated with the Department of Language and Culture (ISK). The Department consists of 75 permanent employees, 10 adjunct professors, and approximately 30 PhD fellows. Additionally, the Department has approximately 35 temporary research and teaching positions. The Department’s core activates are research, teaching, and dissemination within linguistics, literature, art history, and media and documentation studies.

The Department has a very active and diverse research profile. It houses one of the world’s most excellent research communities in linguistics, with research groups within cognitive linguistics (CLEAR), Sami language technology (Giellatekno and Divvun), socio-linguistics (LAIDUA), language acquisition (LAVA), and theoretical linguistics (CASTL-FISH). The Department’s research communities within literature, art history, and media and documentation studies are nationally highly competitive, and are organised into research groups such as Health Art Society (HAS), Russian Space, WARGAME and ALMPUB.

ISK offers one-year programmes, as well as Bachelor and Master programmes within the following fields: General linguistics, literature, art history, media and documentation studies, English, Kven, Finnish, Norwegian, Russian, Sami, Spanish, and German. It also offers PhD education within cultural/literary studies, art history, media and documentation studies, and linguistics.

The appointed Post-doctoral Research Fellow must have her/his daily workplace at the UiT, campus Tromsø.

The position’s field of research/research project and other duties

The post-doctoral fellowship is offered as part of a newly funded research project on experimental semantics investigating modal concepts and compositionality in English and Russian. The successful applicant will be primarily responsible for creating and piloting a novel experimental paradigm (in conjunction with Principal Investigator Prof. Ramchand) that test predictions of compositional semantic theories in the realm of modality. The post-doctoral researcher will be a central member of the project team that performs the necessary analytical and theoretical thinking to bridge the gap between existing formal semantic theories and the predictions and data that can be obtained from behavioural testing. They will also be involved in supervising experiments and in the interpretive analysis of the results. It is expected that the post doctoral researcher will be the primary author on half of all the research output of the project over the course of the 3 years, and will be the central architect of the projected novel experimental paradigm for these new questions concerning compositionality.

Qualification requirements

For appointment as Post-doctoral Research Fellow on this project, the applicant requires a Norwegian doctoral degree in formal semantics or corresponding foreign doctoral degree recognised as equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree. The applicant should also be a speaker of Russian and be fluent in English.

The applicant must provide a personal statement describing their background, skills and interests that makes it clear how they will be able to fulfil the goals of the project described above. It is a prerequisite that the applicant will be able to complete the project within the period of employment.

In the assessment the main emphasis will be attached to the submitted works and the personal statement, in assessing the candidate’s suitability for the position and research compatibility with the goals of the project.

There are no teaching duties specifically attached to the project.

Personal suitability will be emphasised.

Working conditions

The working hours are reserved for research, research related activities and research administration.

The successful candidate must be willing to engage him/herself in the ongoing development of their discipline and the university as a whole.

The remuneration for this position is in accordance with the State salary scale code 1352.

A compulsory contribution of 2 % to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund will be deducted.

Application

The application must be submitted electronically via the application form available on www.jobbnorge.no and shall include:

• letter of application
• personal statement relating the candidate’s research goals to the goals of the project advertised.
• CV (containing a complete overview of education, supervised professional training and professional work)
• diplomas and references
• documentation of teaching qualifications
• list of works and description of these
  • the list of works shall contain the following information:
    • author(s), the work’s title
    • for articles: the journal’s name and volume, the first and last page of the article, year of publication
    • for publications: publisher, printer, year of publication, number of pages
• up to ten works that are central to the applicant’s academic production. The applicant’s PhD thesis should be submitted as one of these works.

Additionally, the applicant should provide a description of his/her academic production, indicating which works are the most relevant in relation to the announced position, and therefore should be emphasised in the assessment. The remaining listed works should be described briefly in order to demonstrate the depth of the production. The descriptions should be attached to the application.

Assessment

The applicants will be assessed by an expert committee. It is the committee’s mandate to assess the applicants’ qualifications based on their submitted works and the job announcement.

The best qualified applicants will be selected for interviews. The interview shall among other things aim to clarify the applicant’s personal suitability for the position. The applicants may be required to give a trial lecture.

Other information

The University of Tromsø wishes to increase the proportion of women in research positions.

In the event that two or more applicants are found to be approximately equally qualified, female applicants will be given priority.

For further information, applicants should consult the supplementary regulations for appointment to postdoktor (postdoctoal Research Fellow), stipendiat (PhD) and vitenskapelige assistent (Research Assistant) positions at the UiT and the http://www.uhr.no/documents/Regulations_Post_doctoral_and_research_fellow.pdf

Questions concerning the organisation of the working environment, such as the physical state of the place of employment, health service, possibility for flexible working hours, part time, etc. may be directed to the telephone reference in this announcement.

UiT’s HR policy objectives emphasises diversity, and encourages all qualified applicants to apply regardless of gender, functional ability and national or ethnic background.

UiT is an IW (Inclusive Workplace) enterprise, and will make the necessary adaptations in order to facilitate for employees with reduced functional ability.

Personal data given in an application or CV will be processed in accordance with the Act relating to the processing of personal data (the Personal Data Act). In accordance with Section 25 subsection 2 of the Freedom of Information Act, the applicant may request not to be registered on the public list of applicants. However, the University may nevertheless decide to publish the applicant’s name. The applicant will receive advance notification in the event of such publication.

We are looking forward to receiving your application.

Apply for position

Søknadsfrist: 30.07.2018

Web: www.uit.no

Kontakt: Professor Gillian Ramchand (Principal Investigator on the project)

E-post: gillian.ramchand@uit.no

Kontakt 2: Eystein Dahl (Head of Department)

Telefon: +47 77 64 42 90

E-post: eystein.dahl@uit.no