Three-year post doc position: Comparing gestures and signs sharing the same form in co-speech gesture and sign language

*** 3-years post-doc position is available in the project GeSi (Visual Communication)***

We are seeking to fill a PostDoc position in the project ‘Gestures or signs? Comparing manual and non-manual constructions sharing the same form in co-speech gesture and sign language: a corpus-driven approach. (GeSi), which is part of the DFG-funded Priority Programme “Visual Communication”. In the proposed project, we investigate selected manual and non-manual constructions sharing a similar form in co-speech gesture and sign using mainly corpus-based approach. The project is led and supervised by Dr Anastasia Bauer (Linguistic Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Cologne (UoC)).

YOUR TASKS

»  Carry out data collection from both deaf and hearing participants

»  Design, run and analyze elicitation experiments (incl. literature review, creation of stimulus materials)

»  Annotate and analyze spoken language corpus data (co-speech gestures)

»  Annotate and analyze sign language corpus data

»  Present your results at international conferences

»  Write and publish articles in academic journals

»  Participate in the interdisciplinary DFG priority program “Visual Communication” (e.g. on site participation in all network meetings)

YOUR PROFILE

» An above-average PhD degree in relevant discipline (linguistics, psycholinguistics, sign language studies, gesture studies)

» Russian Sign Language proficiency (or knowledge of another sign language, e.g. DGS would be advantageous)

» Knowledge of formational and meaning properties of signs

» Good quantitative and statistical analysis skills would be advantageous

» Exposure to/experience with ELAN and OpenPose would be beneficial

» Excellent team-working skills

» Excellent communication skills, esp. written English (Willingness to learn German)

WE OFFER YOU

» Challenging and varied tasks with a high degree of personal responsibility

» Cooperation with interdisciplinary teams of researchers within the “Visual Communication” priority program

» A friendly and enthusiastic team

» A diverse and fair working environment

» Support in reconciling work and family life

» Flexible working time models

» Extensive advanced training opportunities

» Local transport ticket at a discount for UoC employees

The position is available from 1st October 2022 on a full-time basis (39,83 hours per week/100%). It is limited to 30th September 2025. If the applicant meets the relevant wage requirements and personal qualifications, the salary is based on remuneration group 13 TV-L of the pay scale for the German public sector.

The University of Cologne is committed to equal opportunities and diversity. Women are especially encouraged to apply and will be considered preferentially in accordance with the Equal Opportunities Act of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesgleichstellungsgesetz – LGG NRW). We also expressly welcome applications from people with disabilities / special needs or of equal status. Deaf applicants will be considered preferentially.

Applicants should submit a short cover letter including their motivation for the position, a full CV and two sample publications as a single pdf document. We look forward to receiving your application, quoting “PostDoc position GeSi project” to Anastasia.bauer@ uni-koeln.de.

The application deadline is 18th September 2022.