Call for PhD position applications - Cognitive aspects of language contact in the Balkan langua[...]

CNRS / Université Côte d'Azur; France; Sur place; EUR 40 000 - 60 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

A university in France is offering a PhD position to explore cognitive aspects of language change in the Balkan region. Candidates should hold a Master's degree and have a strong background in psycholinguistic methods. This role involves conducting experiments and contributing to scholarly publications. Excellent English proficiency is required, and knowledge of a Balkan language is preferred. Monthly salary is approximately €1700 net.

Qualifications

• Strong background in psycholinguistic methods, including behavioral experiments.
• Demonstrated experience in experimental labs through thesis or publications.
• Candidates from minority communities are encouraged to apply.

Responsabilités

• Conduct psycholinguistic experiments analyzing cognitive aspects of language contact.
• Run experiments using behavioral and electrophysiological methods.
• Draft and submit articles for publication.

Connaissances

Psycholinguistic methods

Behavioral response time experiments

Eye-movement monitoring

Electrophysiological experiments

Excellent command of English

Working command of another Balkan language

Formation

Master’s degree in linguistics, cognitive science, psychology or related fields

Description du poste

Organisation/Company CNRS / Université Côte d'Azur Department BCL UMR7320 Research Field Language sciences » Linguistics Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Country France Application Deadline 15 Mar 2026 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

General Information

Title of the offer: Thesis offer (M/F) - Cognitive aspects of language contact in the Balkan language area

Place of work: Nice

Release date: 06/11/2025

Name of scientific responsible / Supervisor: Seçkin Arslan

Type of contract: CDD PhD student/doctoral contract

Start date of the position: Open until filled, applications preferred before March 2026.

Work shift: Full time

Funded by the French National Agency (ANR), MindContact project aims to explore cognitive aspects of contact-induced language change in the Balkan peninsula. Blending psycholinguistic perspectives with contact linguistics, this project takes contact phenomena in the Balkan language area under scrutiny. The Balkans are a melting pot of grammars, where different morphosyntactic features of different languages blend due to extensive language contact. In this project, we focus on ‘minoritized’ language varieties including non‑standard minoritized languages under contact (e.g., Romani, Pomak, Judeo‑Espagnol/Ladino) and regional variants under contact (e.g., Asia Minor Greek, Rumelian Turkish). A particular concentration of the PhD candidate’s research would be conducted on the following grammatical phenomena: tense/aspect, evidentiality, indefinite articles, phrase structure and word orders across one or two of the above mentioned minoritized languages spoken under dominant societal languages including South Slavic languages, Modern Standard Greek and/or Turkish. MindContact explores cognitive mechanisms of language change by investigating, cross‑linguistic structural priming, codeswitching, and chunking. The PhD candidate will be responsible, under the supervision of the scientific supervisor, for building psycholinguistic experiments using behavioral, eye‑movement monitoring and electrophysiological experiments and running these experiments under experimental fieldwork expeditions, analysing these data and drafting/submitting articles for publication.

Desired qualifications

The PhD candidate is required to hold a master’s degree with A level grades in linguistics, cognitive science, psychology or related fields with a strong background in psycholinguistic methods including behavioral response times experiments, as well as eye‑movement monitoring and electrophysiological experiments, demonstrated by a completed research thesis, publications and/or comparable duration of internships in experimental labs.

The PhD candidate is expected to have an excellent command of at least one and a working command of another demographically societal Balkan language, and is preferred to be a speaker of the minoritized language under scrutiny developed in their research proposal. Candidates from the minority communities with required qualifications are encouraged to apply.

Excellent fluency in academic English is required, knowledge of French is not required but desired.

Applications

Applications should be made by email to [e-mail] , if possible in a single PDF file with the name of candidate mentioning ‘MindContact PhD project’ including the following documents.

• Detailed CV
• Description of the research project (max. 5 pages), research projects without a close relation to the above project description will not be further considered.
• Copy of certificates and transcripts of previous undergraduate and graduate education
• Contact details of one or two referents, including information on the relationship of the candidate to the referee.

Further information

Project funded by French National Agency (ANR)

Call opening date 06/11/2025

Call for projects type: Doctoral Research

Renumeration: monthly doctoral salary is around 1700€ per month (net).

Call for projects scope: International

Languages concerned: Projects on Balkan languages may be considered but priority will be given on projects investigating psycholinguistic aspects closely related to above described dominant and minoritized languages.

Where to apply

E-mail [e-mail]

Requirements

Research Field Language sciences » Linguistics Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

Desired qualifications

The PhD candidate is required to hold a master’s degree with A level grades in linguistics, cognitive science, psychology or related fields with a strong background in psycholinguistic methods including behavioral response times experiments, as well as eye‑movement monitoring and electrophysiological experiments, demonstrated by a completed research thesis, publications and/or comparable duration of internships in experimental labs.

The PhD candidate is expected to have an excellent command of at least one and a working command of another demographically societal Balkan language, and is preferred to be a speaker of the minoritized language under scrutiny developed in their research proposal. Candidates from the minority communities with required qualifications are encouraged to apply.

Excellent fluency in academic English is required, knowledge of French is not required but desired.

Languages ENGLISH Level Excellent

Research Field Language sciences

Additional Information

Work Location(s)

Number of offers available 1 Company/Institute Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) Country France Postal Code Campus Saint‑Jean d'Angély - 25 avenue François Mitterrand - NICE Geofield