The research area Semantics-Pragmatics of the Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin is looking for candidates for a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship to join our group. The fellowship is funded as a Humboldt research fellowship, but the selection is within a Henriette Herz Scouting grant awarded to Uli Sauerland. We want to extend our network and make it more diverse. We therefore particularly welcome applications from junior researchers who have not previously been considered for an application to the Humboldt Foundation or a research stay in Germany. We generally welcome all nominations regardless of ethnic, cultural or social background, gender identity, age, religion, worldview, disability or sexual orientation. In the first appointment within this program we seek specifically a researcher who is not male or from an underrepresented group such as citizens of a developing country. The assessment also considers the individual life journey and educational background, also and especially in terms of equal opportunities and accessibility.
The following requirements apply:
- The Ph.D. must be completed at the beginning of the fellowship, and not date back more than four years
- The planned start of the fellowship should be between September 1st, 2025 and July 1st, 2026.
- The researcher must not be presently based in Germany.
The most important for the selection is an active research profile with plans that fit well with the interests of the ZAS Semantics-Pragmatics group. Particular interests within the group are:
- logical and other formal theories of semantics/pragmatics including questions, polarity, number, implicature, degrees, intensionality
- child language studies addressing semantic/pragmatic questions
- semantic investigations of understudied languages
- work relating morphology/syntax with semantics/pragmatics
The monthly fellowship amount is currently €2,700/month plus €500/month for research costs, and additional benefits such assupport for German language classes and support for accompanying family members. Fellows will be required to be based in Berlin for the duration of the fellowship. The fellowship can also be split into three stays over the course of three years. For further information regarding the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship please see the website of the Humboldt foundation. Fellows will have a fully equipped workplace at ZAS and can make use of the four linguistic labs at ZAS. The research team in semantics and pragmatics currently consists of over 15 researchers.
Interested individuals should please send the following in PDF format to Uli Sauerland <sauerland@leibniz-zas.de>:
1. their curriculum vitae containing (planned) thesis date and a full list of their publications
2. an application letter outlining their research interests, their research plans for the fellowship, and their ideal start date of the fellowship
3. if the Ph.D. is not yet completed, a letter from their advisor or department head affirming the planned degree completion date.
Inquiries prior to application should be send to the same address. The initial deadline for full consideration is June 13th, but applications received after this deadline may also be considered or kept on file for future similar opportunities.