Postdoctoral Research Fellow in (Psycho) Linguistics

A Postdoctoral Research Fellow position is available at the Department of Language and Culture,  Faculty of Humanities , in (Psycho)Linguistics. The position will be affiliated with the project Multilingual Minds: Grammar interaction in multilingual acquisition (MuMin ) and the AcqVA Aurora-Center. 

The position is a fixed term position for a duration of two years. Appointment to the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow is mainly intended to provide qualification for work in top academic positions. It is a prerequisite that the applicant can carry out the project over the full course of the employment period. No person may hold more than one fixed term position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the same institution. If you receive a personal overseas research grant from NFR it is possible to apply NFR for an extension of the fellowship period corresponding to the length of the stay abroad (minimum three months, maximum 12 months).

The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø. You must be able to start in the position within a reasonable time after receiving the offer.

The majority of people in the modern world are multilingual, with as many as two thirds of children being raised in multilingual environments. Across Europe, the proportion of multilingual children is currently around 20-25%, and steadily increasing. The last decades have witnessed a remarkable increase in effort from several disciplines aimed to uncover the cognitive mechanisms of language acquisition and language processing, and to understand how language is organised in the mind. One important aspect of this enterprise is the study of whether and how multiple languages interact within multilingual minds. However, this question is difficult to address within current methodological approaches which compare the linguistic behaviour of bilingual children to that of their monolingual peers. In such setup it is impossible to establish whether differences between the groups are due to cross-linguistic influence (CLI) or to the reduced input that bilingual children receive in their two languages. In this project, we propose a new methodology which will enable us to disentangle CLI from the effects of reduced input. We will go beyond comparing bilingual children to monolinguals and make a comparison across multiple bilingual populations. In doing this, we will keep one language - the target - constant and vary the second language parametrically (based on the presence and absence of certain grammatical features). We will match the participants by their exposure to the target language, thus making sure that the only difference between the groups is their second language. This in turn means that if we find any differences in the way the bilingual groups comprehend or produce the target language, we will be able to confidently attribute these differences to the influence coming from their second languages. The findings of the project will have major implications for the theoretical models of languages in the mind, and for theoretical and practical aspects of language learning.

The primary objective of the project is to establish the role of cross-linguistic grammatical influence in multilingual child language acquisition by applying a new methodology of comparing across bilingual populations and strictly matching the participants by language exposure factors. The secondary objectives of the project include a) comparing production and processing data from the same bilingual populations, and b) developing a new standard methodology for cross-linguistic comparisons of multilingual children.

The Department of Language and Culture has a very active research environment with a large thematic breadth. The Department hosts some of the leading academic linguistic environments in the world, among others represented by the AcqVA Aurora Center, established in 2020.

The department offers studies in general linguistics, literary studies, art history, media and documentation studies, English, Swedish

and Finnish, Nordic, Russian, Sami, Spanish and German, as one-year studies, bachelor's or master's degree studies. The Department also offers doctoral education in cultural/literary studies, art history, media and documentation studies and linguistics.

The AcqVA Aurora Centre  currently consists of ca 40 active researchers, including ten professors/associate professors, a lab director, eleven researchers/postdoctoral fellows, five MSCA postdocs, four PhD students, and eight Professor II positions (20%), who are top, internationally recognized leaders in our field. The group members are involved in a number of research projects both locally and internationally, e.g. the MuMin , MiMS  and SALT  projects financed by the Research Council of Norway, the MultiGender  project funded by the Centre for Advanced Study, and the HeLPiNG  project funded by the Tromsø Research Foundation. 

For further information about the position, please contact Lecturer Natalia Mitrofanova:

or Head of Department Cathrine Theodorsen:

email: [email protected]

This position requires a Norwegian doctoral degree (PhD) or an equivalent foreign doctoral degree in Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Psychology or another relevant field. Qualification with a PhD is required before commencement in the position. If you’re at the final stages of your PhD, you may still apply if you have submitted your PhD thesis for doctoral degree evaluation within the application deadline. You must submit the thesis with your application. You must have dissertated before the start-up date of the position.

We are looking for a candidate who have: 

• Experience within language processing, language acquisition and/or multilingualism
• Excellent command of spoken and written English

It is considered an advantage if you have: 

• Knowledge of Spanish / Turkish /Ukrainian/ Russian
• Experience with statistical analysis is desirable

During the assessment emphasis will be put on the candidate’s motivation, potential for research, and personal suitability for the position.

At UiT we put emphasis on the quality, relevance and significance of the research work and not on where the work is published, in accordance with the principles of The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA ).

UiT The Arctic University i Norway is working actively to promote equality, gender balance and diversity among employees and students, and to create an inclusive and safe working environment. We believe that inclusion and diversity is a strength, and we want employees with different competencies, professional experience, life experience and perspectives.  

If you have a disability, a gap in your CV or immigrant background, we encourage you to tick the box for this in your application. If there are qualified applicants, we invite least one in each group for an interview. If you get the job, we will adapt the working conditions if you need it. Apart from selecting the right candidates, we will only use the information for anonymous statistics. 

• Involvement in an interesting research project
• Good career opportunities
• A good academic environment with dedicated colleagues
• Flexible working hours and a state collective pay agreement
• Pension scheme through the state pension fund
• More practical information for working and living in Norway can be found here: https://uit.no/staffmobility  

Your application must include:

• CV
• Application letter
• Contextualizing statement/proposal (2-3 pages), detailing how the candidate will fit into the research done in MuMin and how they are planning to contribute to the project.
• Diplomas and transcripts (all degrees)
• Contact information to 1-2 references
• Up to five samples of published work or other professional writings

The applicants must provide a general contextualizing statement/proposal (2-3 pages), indicating how they see their background and experience fitting into MuMin, especially in relation to the research questions and aims of the project. Please contact the Natalia Mitrofanova  for any questions you might have.

All documentation to be considered must be in a Scandinavian language or English. We only accept applications and documentation sent via Jobbnorge within the application deadline.

The applicants will be assessed by an expert committee. The committee's mandate is to undertake an assessment of the applicants' qualifications based on the written material presented by the applicants, and the detailed description draw up for the position.

The applicants who are assessed as best qualified will be called to an interview. The interview should among other things, aim to clarify the applicant’s motivation and personal suitability for the position. A trial lecture may also be held.

The appointment is made in accordance with State regulations and guidelines at UiT. At our website, you will find more information for applicants . 

The remuneration for Postdoctoral research fellow is in accordance with the State salary scale code 1352. A compulsory contribution of 2 % to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund will be deducted.

The successful candidate must be willing to get involved in the ongoing development of their department and the university as a whole.

According to the Norwegian Freedom and Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure. 

UiT is a multi-campus research university in Norway and the northernmost university of the world. Our central location in the High North, our broad and diverse research and study portfolio, and our interdisciplinary qualities make us uniquely suited to meet the challenges of the future. At UiT you can explore global issues from a close-up perspective.

Credibility, academic freedom, closeness, creativity and commitment shall be hallmarks of the relationship between our employees, between our employees and our students and between UiT and our partners.