[Lingtyp] Two doctoral fellowships in linguistics at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena

[Diana Forker]

Two doctoral fellowships in linguistics at the Friedrich Schiller  
University Jena

1. Fellowship
The interdisciplinary research project "Global knowledge transfer and  
translocal paradoxes" at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena  
invites applications for a doctoral fellowship (3 years).

The doctoral fellow is expected to make a significant contribution to  
the research programme of the centre as specified below, and to write  
a dissertation on a relevant topic.

The linguistic subproject on "Transfer of linguistic technologies and  
resources" focuses on the transfer from high resource languages to low  
resource languages. This concerns the creation of linguistic corpora  
of smaller national languages using computer-aided methods (e.g.  
automated structural and semantic annotations, automatic translation),  
e.g. in the context of political discourse. In cooperation with other  
sub-projects, interdisciplinary, comparative corpus-based case studies  
on topics such as "digitalization", "freedom" or "pandemic management"  
will be carried out, for instance using topic modeling and sentiment  
analysis.

Tasks and deliverables:
* PhD dissertation
* creation of annotated corpora of low resource languages
* training of annotation and translation models for these languages
* interdisciplinary case studies on topics that are of interest to the  
research centre
* participation in the preparation of funding applications

Requirements:
* degree in general or computational linguistics, or the linguistics  
of a specific language
* experience with work on multilingual corpora (annotation and analysis)
* experience with word embeddings
* experience with semantic text modeling (e.g. topic modeling,  
sentiment analysis)
* solid knowledge of at least one programming language (e.g. Java, Python, R)
* experience with version control systems
* interest in research data management (e.g. reproducibility, FAIRness)

Applications should include a CV, a sample of written work, an exposé  
for a PhD project and (optionally) letters of reference.

Please send your applications by email to  
susanne.buechner at uni-jena.de. The deadline is July, 20, 2020.

If you have any questions concerning the application, please get in  
touch with diana.forker at uni-jena.de or volker.gast at uni-jena.de


Project summary: "Global knowledge transfer and translocal paradoxes"

Globalisation is generally seen as both a cause and a consequence of  
increasing spatial mobility. This mobility involves various forms of  
transfer: the transfer of knowledge and norms in socio-cultural life  
as well as science and technology. The aim of the project is to  
analyse such global exchange processes. It will examine their  
conditions and consequences as well as the actors involved, in current  
and historical terms, from a conceptual and empirical perspective. The  
main focus is on the manifold tensions and paradoxes associated with  
cultural and regional differentiation on the one hand, and global  
connectedness on the other. Two types of paradoxes will figure  
centrally: (i) those that arise as a result of the (often  
asymmetrical) exchange processes between regional and cultural spaces;  
and (ii) those that arise within such spaces or societies as a result  
of said processes.

* * *
2. Fellowship

The interdisciplinary research project "Spheres of liberty and the  
protection of freedom in the European state" at the Friedrich Schiller  
University Jena invites applications for a doctoral fellowship (3  
years).

The doctoral fellow is expected to make a significant contribution to  
the research programme of the centre as specified below, and to write  
a dissertation on a relevant topic.

The linguistic sub-project on "The blessings and curses of the digital  
era" investigates public discourse centering around attitudes towards  
digitalization and its relation to personal and political freedom. The  
studies will be corpus-based, e.g. using multilingual parliamentary  
corpora of European languages  
(https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/L4OAKN) and possibly additional  newspaper and Twitter  
corpora.

Tasks and deliverables:
* PhD dissertation
* creation of annotated parliamentary corpora
* interdisciplinary case studies on the relationship between  
digitalization and freedom
* participation in the preparation of funding applications

Requirements:
* degree in general linguistics, or the linguistics of a specific language
* experience with work on multilingual corpora
* solid knowledge of statistical methods of corpus analysis
* interest in research data management

Applications should include a CV, a sample of written work, an exposé  
for a PhD project and (optionally) letters of reference.

Please send your applications by email to  
susanne.buechner at uni-jena.de. The deadline is July, 20, 2020.


If you have any questions concerning the application, please get in  
touch with diana.forker at uni-jena.de or volker.gast at uni-jena.de

Project summary: "Spheres of liberty and the protection of freedom in  
the European state"

While the long-term consequences of the digital revolution are not yet  
fully understood, there is no doubt that modern societies face several  
political, economic and social challenges coming with technological  
progress in the domain of artificial intelligence. This concerns,  
among other things, the operation of the state under conditions of  
digitalization. On the one hand, the state is challenged by globally  
operating IT companies, resulting in significant enforcement deficits.  
On the other hand, the use of artificial intelligence enables the  
state to exercise control over citizens and companies. The
project deals with these challenges from a legal, sociological and  
economic point of view, in several interconnected sub-projects from  
various fields.



-- 
Prof. Dr. Diana Forker
Professur für Kaukasusstudien
Institut für Slawistik und Kaukasusstudien
Jenergasse 8 (Acchouchierhaus)
07743 Jena
Tel. +49-3641-944885