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Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution

PhD Position in the Statistical Modeling of Linguistic Evolution

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The Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE) at the University of Zurich (UZH) offers a PhD training and research position in the statistical modeling of linguistic evolution under varied conditions. The work will be tightly integrated with the Diversification project of the NCCR Evolving Language (https://evolvinglanguage.ch/diversification-project/).

Your responsibilities

You will acquire and/or deepen knowledge in the theory and methods of linguistic evolution (in particular using probabilistic programming languages such as Stan to develop explicit quantitative models), lead the development of at least three publishable papers jointly with supervisors and other collaborators, and submit a dissertation integrating these papers with a review of the state of the art. You will actively participate in lab meetings, NCCR events, and journal clubs.

Your profile

You are trained in historical and typological linguistics and are familiar with the basics of statistics and data wrangling. Familiarity with Bayesian approaches and/or phylogenetic comparative methods are additional assets. You furthermore have a vivid interest in adjacent fields, in particular neurolinguistics and human population genetics. You have excellent communication skills in English.

What we offer

You will join Professor Balthasar Bickel's Distributional Linguistics Lab and will be integrated into the NCCR Evolving Language, a Swiss network of scientists from the natural, social, cognitive, and computational sciences working together on the evolution of language. Your dissertation will be supervised by Balthasar Bickel, Chundra Cathcart, and Anna Graff.

Employment is at 80% FTE and includes within this about 10% teaching assistant tasks. The position is a training opportunity and you are expected to use the remaining unpaid 20% for your own further training and skill development. The salary is internationally competitive and follows standards set by the Swiss National Science Foundation Salary ranges, guidelines for employees in SNSF-funded projects (PDF).

The position is offered as a one-year contract, renewable for up to four years based on performance. We are committed to fostering gender balance and diversity in hiring decisions.

Place of work

ISLE Institute, Affolternstrasse 56, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland.

Start of employment

Start date: 1 September 2025, or by arrangement.

Further information

Review of applications will begin on 1 June 2025, and continue until the position is filled.
UPDATE: Review of applications to start on 10 June 2025.

APPLY HERE

To apply, please prepare the following documents as a single PDF:

  • A cover letter (ca. 1 page) describing your previous experience and research interests, with a motivation to apply for the present position
  • A CV with a list of course work and grades
  • One or two short writing samples/publications that demonstrate your qualifications for the position

Please be prepared to provide the contact information (name, position, and e-mail addresses) of two references.

For further information about the project, please contact Balthasar Bickel. For administrative questions please contact Lena Zipp.