PhD in Cross-Linguistic Sentence Planning

Institute for Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution

PhD in Cross-Linguistic Sentence Planning 80 %

Start of employment 1 March 2026 or by agreement, temporary

The ISLE Institute invites applications for a PhD position in a project that probes the neural correlates for sentence planning cross-linguistically. The project is embedded in the NCCR Evolving Language ), a Swiss consortium with the ambitious goal of creating a new discipline, Evolutionary Language Science, that targets the past and future of language and draws on expertise from the social, natural, and computational sciences.

You will be integrated into the Distributional Linguistics Lab at the ISLE Institute

) and will work closely together with similarly-interested researchers in the NCCR. Your dissertation work will be supervised by Professor Balthasar Bickel and Dr. Laura Giglio.

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, see 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.

Your responsibilities

You will design and conduct neurolinguistic experiments that improve our understanding of sentence planning processes as conditioned by maximally diverse languages. Based on these you are expected to complete within 4 years 3 PhD dissertation papers together with your supervisors and potentially other contributors from the lab, the institute, or the NCCR consortium (as the need and/or interest arises). You will determine the choice of languages with your supervisor based on the specific research question but we generally prefer areas where we already have active research collaborations in psycholinguistics (Nepal, Vietnam, Peru, and the Philippines).

Your profile

You have a background in linguistics, psycholinguistics or cognitive neuroscience, with a Master's degree on a related topic and have good skills in data science (e.g. scripting in R or Python) and statistics. Additional assets are experience with EEG (or eye-tracking), and/or experience with fieldwork on underprivileged languages. Candidates which lack one or both of these experiences are expected to have strong motivation to learn at the beginning of the PhD project.

We greatly value team science, and you are expected to have excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Information on your application

Review of applications will begin in February 2026 and continue until the position is filled.

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 Laura Giglio.

For administrative questions please contact Lena Zipp.

What we offer

Work-Life Balance

• Flexible working models (such as part-time positions, mobile working, job-sharing)
• Childcare at the kihz foundation of UZH and ETH

Learning and Development

• Wide range of continuing education courses of UZH and the Canton of Zurich
• Language Center run jointly with ETH Zurich

Food

• Food and drinks at reduced prices in the UZH cafeterias
• Lunch-Check-card with UZH contribution

Healthcare

• Special conditions on the Academic Sports Association ASVZ
• Free seasonal flu vaccinations
• Rest and relaxation at the quiet room in the university tower

Discounts

• Private traffic: Carsharing, rent a vehicle, parking space
• Digitalization: Hardware, software, mobile phone subscriptions
• Special conditions on hotel reservations

Conditions of Employment

• Policies of the UZH
• Most UZH staff are employed according to public law

International Services

• Support for people from outside Switzerland

Campuses

• Campuses Zurich City, Zurich Irchel, Oerlikon and Schlieren
• Sites Zurich West, Old Botanical Garden, Botanical Garden and Lengg

Location
Institute for Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution

Affolternstrasse 56, 8050 Zürich, Switzerland

Further information
Questions about the job

Lena Zipp

Program Coordinator

Working at UZH

The University of Zurich, Switzerland's largest university, offers a range of attractive positions in various subject areas and professional fields. With around 10,000 employees and currently 12 professional apprenticeship streams the University offers an inspiring working environment on cutting-edge research and top-class education. Put your talent and skills to work with us. Find out more about UZH as an employer

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