[Lingtyp] Graduate student positions in Indigenous languages and technology

[Antti Arppe]

Dear colleagues,

We'd appreciate if you shared the posting below on our graduate student 
positions through your networks. Also, if you know of students who'd be 
interested in the creation of language technological resources and in 
Indigenous languages, we'd be most happy if they applied.

----
LEVEL: MA / PhD

SPECIALTY AREAS:
Morphology; Phonetics; Computational Linguistics; Language 
Documentation; Text/Corpus Linguistics, Indigenous Languages; Language 
Revitalization

DESCRIPTION:
The Alberta Language Technology Lab (ALTLab) in the Department of 
Linguistics at the University of Alberta is offering two graduate 
student positions at the PhD (4 years) or MA (2 years) level in its 
graduate program, beginning in September 2020 within the research 
project: 21st Century Tools for Indigenous Languages, funded by a Social 
Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant in 
2019 – 2026. For more information, see our project website: 
http://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/21c.

This partnership is hosted by the Alberta Language Technology Lab 
(ALTLab) and is led by Dr. Antti Arppe (Associate Professor & 
Partnership Director).  We are developing language technological models, 
tools, and resources for Indigenous languages in Canada, starting with 
Plains Cree (Algonquian) and Tsuut’ina (Dene), and plan to continue and 
expand work in other languages. These tools and resources include: 
intelligent electronic dictionaries, linguistically analyzed collections 
of spoken and written texts, spell-checkers, language learning and 
practice tools, and word form analyzers and generators, all created in 
collaboration with Indigenous communities in order to facilitate and 
support the use of their languages in all spheres of life by community 
members.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Alongside studies in the Department’s graduate program, the graduate 
student will be expected to:

* support the development or maintenance of our current or future 
projects within ALTLab for our partnering communities.
* conduct research that falls within the purview of ALTLab research 
interests on either the languages of our partners and/or another 
indigenous language (see our list of past publications from our ALTLab 
team and a full list of potential research topics.)

THESE POSITIONS REQUIRE:
  a keen interest in North American Indigenous languages;
* a Bachelor's or Master’s degree in a relevant field; and
* meeting the general entrance requirements to the Department’s graduate 
program (http://www.linguistics.ualberta.ca/Graduate/Admissions.aspx)

WE WILL PREFER CANDIDATES WITH:
* experience in and knowledge of the phonetics/phonology and/or 
morphosyntax of Indigenous languages (North American Indigenous 
languages, in particular Plains Cree or other Algonquian language); and/or
* experience in computational linguistics and natural language 
processing (e.g. finite-state transducers, speech technology); and/or
* interest or experience in language documentation, language 
revitalization, and language learning.

WE OFFER:
* an opportunity to personally contribute to the practical retention of 
linguistic diversity;
* opportunities for well-rounded, comprehensive training in empirical 
research methods in field linguistics, psycholinguistics and corpus 
linguistics as well as in language technology; and
* a chance to participate in an international SSHRC funded Partnership 
involving collaboration with 27 researchers from 14 different partner 
organizations world-wide including leading research centers in the 
development of language technology and research on indigenous languages.

HOW TO APPLY:
To apply, send by email to our Partnership office (21ct4il at gmail.ca, 
Attn: Dr. Antti Arppe, ref: PhD 2020) the following:

1. a brief statement of research interests and relevant background;
2. curriculum vitae (including possible publications and presentations);
3. transcripts of university studies (electronic copies will do); and
4. at least two confidential academic letters of reference delivered 
directly to Dr. Antti Arppe (arppe at ualberta.ca) by the referees.

We will start considering applications at the end of December 2019. 
These positions are open until filled, but we urge applications to be 
submitted by Friday Jan 3, 2020, in order to meet the Linguistics 
departmental regular graduate application deadline on Friday, Jan 10, 
2020. These positions are for a start in September 2020.

For further information, please consult the the project website: 
http://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/21c and contact our Partnership office 
(21ct4il at gmail.com, attn: Antti Arppe).

APPLICATIONS DEADLINE: 03-Jan-2020

MORE INFORMATION/UPDATES:
http://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/call-for-phd-student-applications-deadline-january-3rd-2020/

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Partnership office
21ct4il at gmail.com

-- 
======================================================================
Antti Arppe - Ph.D (General Linguistics), M.Sc. (Engineering)
Associate Professor of Quantitative Linguistics
Director, Alberta Language Technology Lab (ALTLab)
Project Director, 21st Century Tools for Indigenous Languages (21C)
Chair, Canadian Initiative for Nordic Studies (CINS)
Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta
E-mail: arppe at ualberta.ca, antti.arppe at iki.fi
WWW: www.ualberta.ca/~arppe, altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca
Mānahtu ina rēdûti ihza ummânūti ihannaq - dulum ugulak úmun ingul
----------------------------------------------------------------------