PhD Position: Cognitive Aspects of Linguistic Contact in the Balkan Linguistic Area
Explore the cognitive mechanisms of language change through psycholinguistic experiments in Balkan linguistic contact zones.
Best for:Best for linguists, psycholinguists, or cognitive scientists with expertise in fieldwork, experimental design, and Balkan languages, seeking to contribute to interdisciplinary research on language contact and cognitive mechanisms.
Overview
This PhD position, funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), focuses on the cognitive dimensions of linguistic change driven by contact in the Balkan linguistic region. The project, called MindContact, integrates psycholinguistics and contact linguistics to investigate how minoritized languages—such as Romani, Pomak, Ladino, and regional variants like Greek of Asia Minor or Roumeli Turkish—adapt grammatically under societal pressure. The doctoral researcher will design behavioral, eye-tracking, and electrophysiological experiments to study phenomena like temporal/aspectual systems, evidentiality, and sentence structure. Fieldwork in Balkan communities will collect data, which will be analyzed and published in academic journals. The position is based in Nice, France, under the supervision of a scientific director within the Bases Corpus Langage research unit at CNRS.
What you'll do
- Design and conduct behavioral, eye-tracking, and electrophysiological experiments to study cognitive processes in linguistic contact zones.
- Conduct fieldwork in Balkan communities to collect data on minoritized languages (e.g., Romani, Pomak, Ladino).
- Analyze experimental and fieldwork data using psycholinguistic and linguistic methodologies.
- Publish findings in peer-reviewed academic journals and present results at conferences.
- Collaborate with the scientific director and research team to integrate findings into the broader MindContact project.
- Develop and refine experimental protocols for future studies on linguistic contact.
Requirements
Degree required: Master's degree in Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Cognitive Science, or a related field.
Degree offered: PhD
Language: French; proficiency sufficient for academic work in France (no explicit test requirement mentioned).
Instruction: French (primary); English may be used for academic publications.
- Proven expertise in psycholinguistics or experimental linguistics.
- Experience with behavioral, eye-tracking, or electrophysiological data collection.
- Familiarity with fieldwork methodologies in linguistic research.
- Strong command of statistical and analytical tools for data processing.
- Proficiency in at least one Balkan language or willingness to learn for fieldwork.
- Open to all nationalities.
- No age or residency restrictions mentioned.
Funding & terms
How to apply
Deadline: 2026-10-20
Applicants must submit their application through the CNRS employment portal. Required documents include a CV, a cover letter detailing research interests and relevance to the project, a research proposal, academic transcripts, and two letters of recommendation. Ensure all documents are in French or accompanied by a certified translation.
- CV
- Cover letter
- Research proposal
- Academic transcripts (Bachelor’s and Master’s)
- Two letters of recommendation
Contact
Scientific Director (Name not specified)· Director of the MindContact Project
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