PhD in Endangered Language Documentation in Indonesia

Universiteit Leiden; Leiden; Remote; EUR 36,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) invites applications for two fully funded PhD positions within the NWO project “Usku and Banda: Automated Documentation of Endangered Languages of Eastern Indonesia.” The PhDs will document and describe unwritten endangered languages, Usku and Banda, through fieldwork, corpus creation, and lexicon development.

The project aims to build a documentary record, enabling grammatical analysis of phonology, morphology, and syntax while addressing language

Qualifications

• Master's degree in linguistics or equivalent completed before start date.
• Demonstrated interest in language documentation, field linguistics or descriptive linguistics.
• Excellent research and academic English skills.
• Working knowledge of Indonesian or willingness to acquire within six months.
• Strong cooperative attitude and willingness to engage in collaborative research.
• Fieldwork experience in a non-western context is a plus.
• Preference given to candidates from Indonesia if equally suitable.

Responsibilities

• Collect audio-visual linguistic and cultural data through fieldwork in Indonesia.
• Transcribe, annotate, analyze and archive naturalistic language data.
• Test and evaluate tools for automated linguistic data annotation and analysis.
• Present joint research results at workshops and conferences.
• Publish joint research results and write a PhD thesis within the appointment period.
• Assist in teaching activities at bachelor level and in knowledge dissemination activities.
• Participate in project meetings and training sessions.

Skills

Linguistics interest

English proficiency

Indonesian knowledge

Fieldwork experience

Collaborative research

Education

Master's degree in linguistics

Job description

Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) invites applications for two fully funded PhD positions within the NWO project “Usku and Banda: Automated Documentation of Endangered Languages of Eastern Indonesia.” The PhDs will document and describe unwritten endangered languages, Usku and Banda, through fieldwork, corpus creation, and lexicon development.

The project aims to build a documentary record, enabling grammatical analysis of phonology, morphology, and syntax while addressing language