PhD Position: Accented Speech Processing

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM); Nijmegen; On-site; EUR 28.000 - 35.000; Full time

Job summary

A prestigious university in the Netherlands offers a PhD position focusing on foreign accents in human communication and interaction with AI. The candidate will engage in interdisciplinary research through the HUM.AI.N-ACCENT project, collaborating with 13 research labs across Europe. The position includes advanced training and participation in international events, fostering critical insights into communication dynamics affected by foreign accents.

Qualifications

• Experience in research on foreign accents or related fields.
• Familiarity with methodologies such as virtual reality or eye-tracking.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research on foreign accents in communication.
• Participate in EU-funded HUM.AI.N-ACCENT project activities and training.

Job description

A PhD position is available at the Centre for Language Studies at Radboud University. The successful candidate will perform research on foreign accents in human-human and human-AI communication. Research methods include virtual reality, eye-tracking and behavioural measurements.

As a PhD Candidate, you will be part of an international network of 13 research labs located throughout Europe working on the EU-funded HUM.AI.N-ACCENT project. The full consortium consists of a total of 24 academic and non-academic partners in Europe, Canada and the USA. As part of your training, you will attend regular events across Europe and undertake secondments to at least two Beneficiary/Partner Organisations.

HUM.AI.N-ACCENT is an interdisciplinary research project that explores the neurocognitive and social impacts of foreign-accented speech in human-human and human-AI interactions. With millions of new arrivals to the European Union each year, there is an urgent need to understand how foreign accents influence communication, decision-making and social dynamics. Research has shown that foreign-accented speech can generate biases and increase cognitive load, yet the origins and consequences of these effects are still poorly understood. The HUM.AI.N-ACCENT project aims to fill this gap by combining insights from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, AI engineering, human-computer interaction and social science, with lifespan perspectives. Using advanced methodologies like neuroimaging, eye-tracking, virtual reality and neural tracking, the project will investigate how foreign-accented speech affects neural responses, attention allocation and social judgments. By studying both human-human and human-AI interactions, the project will provide critical insights into how accents shape communication and behaviour in diverse contexts.

You will receive interdisciplinary training in theories and methods for the study of psycholinguistics, more specifically, native- and foreign-accented speech processing. This includes many network-wide events and other (international) training opportunities.