Postdoctoral Position

[Ioulia Kovelman]

Dear Info Childes,

Please help us circulate the following information:

Postdoctoral Position available: gesture, science learning and museum
design

Starting in September 2004 there will be a postdoctoral position
available at Dartmouth college (www.dartmouth.edu/~educ/dunbar.shtml)
and the Montshire museum of Science in Norwich Vermont
(www.montshire.org), which is 2 miles from the college. The
postdoctoral fellow will be working on an NSF funded project
investigating the cognitive and social interactions that visitors to
the Montshire museum of Science  engage in while they are viewing
exhibits.  Using analyses of gesture, social interactions, and physical
interactions with exhibits the overall goal of the project will be to
facilitate the design of exhibits and learning at the museum, as well
as publish articles on topics related to these issues.  The
postdoctoral fellowship is for two years. The postdoctoral fellow
should have a background in  analyzing real world interactions from a
cognitive (broadly defined) and or  a sociolinguistic perspective.  The
postdoctoral fellow will videotape interactions, analyze the
interactions, using cognitive, social, linguistic and gestural
dimensions,  to determine the representations visitors invoke while
they interact with a exhibits.  This information will then be used by
the museum designers to enhance the exhibits. The postdoctoral fellow
will have the opportunity to interact and participate in studies with
museum specialists, cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and
linguists in an entirely new approach to designing museum exhibits
based upon analyses of human interactions.  Dartmouth College is an
Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and members of underrepresented
groups are encouraged to apply. Include letter of application, vita,
and dossier (including  two letters of recommendation). Consideration
of applications will begin Immediately, with a start date of September
1 2004. Salary is typical for NSF postdocs. Please apply to Prof. Kevin
Dunbar Dept of Education,  Hanover, NH 03755 email address:
kevin.n.dunbar at dartmouth.edu

A few words about Dartmouth and the Montshire museum:  Dartmouth is a
small, Ivy League university with an undergraduate body of about 4300
and a graduate and professional school enrollment of approximately 850.
  We offer Ph.D programs in all of the Sciences and there are a large
number of postdoctoral fellows at the college; there is an extensive
group whose research interests are focused on learning, education, mind
and brain, and the Montshire museum of science is one the leading
science museums in the North East.  We are situated in Hanover NH and
Norwich VT,  traditional New England towns in the heart of winter
skiing and summer lake resort areas.  We are only a two hour drive from
Boston and a three hour drive from Montreal.