Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics (IALS)
PhD student position at the Institute ofArgumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics,Faculty of Communication, culture andUniversità della Svizzera italiana (USI) is a young and lively university, a hub of opportunity
open to the world where students are offered a quality interdisciplinary education in which
they can be fully engaged and take center stage, and where our researchers can count on
having the space to freely pursue their initiative.
Established in 1996, USI is in constant evolution, always taking on new challenges while
remaining true to its three guiding principles: quality, openness and responsibility.
The Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics (IALS) provides a lively research
environment for a PhD student who specializes in the computational study of language.
Interaction with several researchers specializing in Linguistics and Computational
Linguistics, as well as interdisciplinary interactions with colleagues inside and outside the
faculty is an asset for a PhD candidate who wants to work on computational modelling for
the studying language change.
The Institute invites applications for a fully funded Ph.D. position (4 years) in Computational
Linguistics / Natural Language Processing for conducting research in the project entitled
NCCR Evolving Language, Task: Lexical Innovation.
The project
The position will be part of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving
Language www.evolvinglanguage.ch, a Swiss consortium with the ambitious goal of creating
a new discipline, Evolutionary Language Science, that targets the past and future of
language. The consortium consists of leading scientists from traditionally separated
academic domains, which allows us to harvest the diverse expertise from the humanities,
social sciences, computational sciences, natural sciences and medicine towards a
broadscale interdisciplinary collaboration. It aims to solve one of humanity’s great mysteries:
What is language? How did our species develop the capacity for linguistic expression, for
processing language in the brain, and for consistently passing down new variations to the
Within this framework, the successful candidate will be expected to investigate how new
terms emerge and how they spread in different contexts, thereby comparing Western
societies with hunter-gatherer societies. This task is led by computational linguists and
evolutionary anthropologists from the USI Università della Svizzera italiana and the
University of Zurich (UZH).
http://www.evolvinglanguage.ch/
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The Ph.D. Position
The doctoral student will be enrolled in the PhD programme at the Faculty of Communication
sciences) with a specialization in “Computational Linguistics”. He or she will work under
the scientific supervision of Prof. Lonneke van der Plas
(https://search.usi.ch/en/people/28e36cfec1c93ec14e5b0879cd5311e1/van-der-plas
lonneke). He or she will be co-supervised by Prof. Lena Jäger
and Prof. Andrea Migliano
in lab meetings both at USI and UZH is expected. The successful candidate will be offered
the possibility to work in a dynamic research team and in a multidisciplinary and international
scientific environment.
The PhD candidate will help develop the institute’s research agenda. He or she will have the
task of setting up a data collection for his or her dissertation, while at the same time
participating in a variety of tasks related to the research streams in which he/she is involved.
On the teaching side, he/she will work as teaching assistant in courses at either bachelor or
master level, helping in the preparation of teaching materials and tutoring students.
The PhD candidate is also asked to present papers at scientific conferences, and produce
publications for scientific journals.
*) Depending on the candidate’s profile, an enrollment in a PhD programme at the Faculty of
Informatics can be discussed.
Candidates’ profile
The ideal candidate should satisfy the following requirements:
• A Master (or equivalent title) in Computational Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, or
related disciplines, such as Computer Science or Computational Cognitive Science
• High personal interest in multilingual approaches to NLP, low-resource languages, and
language change
• Expertise in machine learning and computational modelling of language (change).
• Good skills in oral and written English (official language of the Ph.D. program)
• Good oral and writing skills in one (or more) national Swiss languages (Italian, German,
French, Romansh). Italian is particularly welcome.
• Ability to work independently and to plan and direct own work
• Motivation to engage in the elaboration of a PhD dissertation. Ability to work in team and
autonomy in scheduling research steps. Interest in teaching and tutoring students and
availability to collaborate with colleagues, especially with colleagues from the different
disciplines of the NCCR Evolving Language (engage in scientific dialogue, listen and think
critically) are required.
Contract terms
Admission to the Ph.D. program is highly competitive. Admission decisions are based on the
candidate’s background, interests, attitude and potential for academic achievement.
Successful enrolment in the Ph.D. program and the position as doctoral researcher are not
compatible with a further professional activity.The position is financed by the project NCCR Evolving Language and the salarylevels correspond to those set by the Swiss National Science Foundation for PhDresearchers.
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The successful candidates will work as research assistants at the Institute of Argumentation,
Linguistics and Semiotics, and will have the possibility to interact with an international
network of collaborators.
Availability to travel to other parts of Switzerland and abroad (for purposes of collaboration
and research) is required.
Starting date is 1.12.2024 (at the earliest). However, the position will be kept open until a
suitable candidate has been found.
The Application
Applications may be submitted upon acceptance of the Applicant Personal Data Processing
Notice found at the following LINK. In the online form, you will be asked to declare that you
have read and understood our privacy policy.
Applications should contain: (1) a letter in which the applicants describe their research
interests and the motivation to apply, (2) a complete CV, (3) copies of relevant diplomas,
certificates as well as the full transcript of records that prove the candidates’ eligibility for
doctoral studies in Computational Linguistics, (4) an electronic version of a research work
(Master thesis or other scientific publication).
The latter must be accompanied by a short summary in English (1 page maximum). A
support letter written by the Master thesis supervisor (or another Professor who knows the
candidate well) is equally welcome.
Applications must be submitted ONLINE by filling out the form accessible through the
following link: APPLY. You will also need to upload the documents listed above.
Applications received before 1 November, will be given priority. However, applications will be
received until the position is filled.
USI strives to be an equal opportunity and family friendly employer and is further responsive
to the needs of dual career couples. We guarantee that the selection process will give equal
opportunities to female and male researchers.
As an institution that values diversity, USI particularly encourages applications from women
and from all individuals from underrepresented groups.
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