[Lingtyp] Postdoc fellowship in Indigenous Language Documentation and Technology

[Antti Arppe]

[apologies for cross-postings]

Dear colleagues,

We'd appreciate if you shared the posting below on our postdoc position 
through your networks. Also, if you know of recent or forthcoming PhD's 
who'd be interested in the creation of language technological resources 
and in Indigenous languages, we'd be most happy if they applied.

	-Antti Arppe
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OPEN POSITION: POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP IN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE 
DOCUMENTATION AND TECHNOLOGY

WEBPAGE:
https://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/21c/2020/03/14/postdoc-language-documentation-2020/

DESCRIPTION

The university-community Partnership “21st Century Tools for Indigenous 
Languages” invites applications for a full-time Postdoctoral Fellowship 
in Indigenous Language Documentation and Technology, beginning in 
summer/fall 2020, in this research project funded by the Social Sciences 
and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. The start date is 
negotiable, and the appointment is tenable for 2 years, subject to 
review after the 1st year.

This 7-year Partnership is led by the Alberta Language Technology Lab 
(ALTLab) in the Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta, and it 
has as partner organizations 13 institutions and Indigenous language 
communities and 31 individual researchers and educators in Canada, the 
United States, and Norway. Further details of our Partnership and the 
host organization can be found at: 
https://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/21c/ and http://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca

Members of our Partnership have been developing computational models of 
the phonetics, morphology, lexis, and syntax of Indigenous languages in 
Canada and North America, starting with the Algonquian and the Dene 
language families, to create software applications that support their 
continued use in daily life by both speakers and learners. These include 
intelligent electronic dictionaries, spell-checkers, linguistically 
analyzed text collections, computer-aided language learning tools, as 
well as text-to-speech synthesizers and optical character recognition. 
The languages we have gotten the furthest with are Plains Cree 
(Algonquian) and Tsuut’ina (Dene), see: 
https://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/tools-applications/ and 
https://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/publications/ .

DUTIES

The tasks of the Postdoc will include the following, allowing for 
variation based on the successful applicant’s competences and interests:

1. participation in/responsibility for the continued development of our 
existing computational morphological and phonetic models and end-user 
applications for the Algonquian and/or Dene and/or other Indigenous 
languages we are already working on;

2. participation in/responsibility for the development of new 
computational morphological and phonetic models and applications for 
Indigenous languages other than the ones we are working on, preferably 
spoken in Canada;

3. partial training and supervision of undergraduate and graduate 
students (M.A/Ph.D level) in developing models, applications and 
resources for Indigenous languages;

4. engagement with Indigenous community consultants on collecting 
primary linguistic data and gathering feedback from community members;

5. other administrative responsibilities.

The fellowship comes with an annual salary (in CAD) in line with SSHRC 
policies 
(https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/programs-programmes/fellowships/postdoctoral-postdoctorale-eng.aspx), 
and benefits.

The postdoc is expected to work with and support the activities of 
multiple Partners in the Partnership, and may be co-located or based at 
other Partners for part of their tenure 
(https://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/21c/people/). To this end, the 
Partnership has allocated dedicated funding for work and travel at 
multiple locations.

By the end of the Postdoc appointment, the successful applicant will 
have a set of skills allowing them to partner with Indigenous 
communities and field linguists to develop a range of sophisticated 
tools in support of language maintenance and revitalization.

QUALIFICATIONS

1. The applicants should have recently completed, or be about to finish, 
a Ph.D degree in linguistics or an associated relevant discipline.

2. Successful applicants may have specialized either in:

a) the documentation and study of Indigenous American languages, with an 
interest to learn computational modelling, or

b) the computational modelling (text and/or speech) of morphologically 
rich languages, with an interest to learn the essential morphological 
and phonetic characteristics of the languages we are working with.

HOW TO APPLY

The application should include

a. A research statement (ca. 2 pages) outlining past experience and 
current research interests and, in particular, how these align with and 
contribute towards the goals of our Partnership project;

b. A Curriculum Vitae (with a List of Publications); and

c. 1-3 relevant academic writing samples.

d. Letters of Recommendation should be sent directly to Project 
Director, Dr. Antti Arppe (arppe at ualberta.ca) by 3 referees.

Applicants should contact Dr. Arppe in advance to discuss their research 
plan.

Applications and any inquiries should be sent by electronic mail to Dr. 
Arppe. Review of applications will begin by April 30, 2020, and will 
continue until the position is filled.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 30-April-2020 (Open until filled)
EMAIL ADDRESS FOR APPLICATIONS: arppe at ualberta.ca

FURTHER INFORMATION:

For the latest up-to-date information, please consult: 
https://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/21c/2020/03/14/postdoc-language-documentation-2020/

Further queries: Dr. Antti Arppe (arppe at ualberta.ca)
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