37.296, Jobs: English; Sociolinguistics: Early Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Position, University of Bern (Switzerland)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-296. Wed Jan 21 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.296, Jobs: English; Sociolinguistics: Early Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Position, University of Bern (Switzerland)

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Date: 21-Jan-2026
From: David Britain [david.britain at unibe.ch]
Subject: English; Sociolinguistics: Early Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Position, University of Bern (Switzerland)


Job Location: Switzerland
Job Title: Early Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Position
Job Rank: Post Doc

Minimum Education: PhD

Specialty Areas: Sociolinguistics

Specialty Language(s): English (eng)

Other Specialties: Dialectology, Language Variation and Change

Description:

Prof David Britain is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher/Teacher to
work in the Modern English Linguistics section of the Department of
English at the University of Bern in Switzerland. The job role
involves BA and MA teaching and thesis supervision (30%),
administration for the section and the Department (10%) and research
(60%). The position is for up to 4 years (non-renewable) and begins on
1st August 2026.
The research component of the position will be to work with the team
of CURLEW (Census of Urban and Rural Language in England and Wales).
CURLEW is a four-year project (from August 2026) funded by the Swiss
National Science Foundation as part of the International
Co-Investigator Scheme with the UK’s Economic and Social Research
Council (ESRC) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It is
a collaboration between David Britain (Bern, PI), Paul Foulkes (York),
Adrian Leemann (Bern) and David Willis (Oxford).
The aim of CURLEW is to conduct a census of urban and rural language
in England and Wales, providing a rich snapshot of the English
language in these countries today using contemporary sociolinguistic
sampling techniques, studying a broad cross-section of the population,
young and old, urban and rural, speakers of different genders, social
classes and ethnic backgrounds. Modelled on the successful Swiss
Dialäktatlas, this project serves as a 21st-century counterpart to the
historic Survey of English Dialects from the 1950s and 60s.
The research team will collect, transcribe and analyse data from over
1000 speakers (8 in each of over 180 locations) across England and
Wales. Data collection will use a custom-developed smartphone app
where participants record responses under real-time remote
supervision. Data from CURLEW will help us fully understand how the
socio-economic and demographic changes of the past half-century have
steered language change across these countries. The successful
applicant will work alongside two other postdocs and 5 PhD students in
Bern, York and Oxford, with day-to-day communication across the sites,
as well as regular team meetings, both online and in person.

Application Deadline: 20-Feb-2026
Email Address for Applications: curlew at unibe.ch
Web Address for Applications: https://www.curlew.info
Application Instructions:
More information about the position, and the CURLEW project, as well
as information on how to apply can be found at www.curlew.info
Contact Information:
        David Britain
        Email: curlew at unibe.ch



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