I am looking for a postdoc working in sentence processing (psycholinguistics); the position is at the TV-L 13 salary level. This is a teaching + research position in my lab (vasishth.github.io) in the University of Potsdam, Germany. The planned start date is 1st October 2023, and the initial appointment (following a six-month probationary period) is three years; this can be extended following a positive evaluation.
Principal tasks:
- Teaching two 90 minute classes to undergraduates and graduate students every semester. We teach courses on frequentist and Bayesian statistics, the foundations of mathematics for non-STEM students entering an MSc program in the linguistics department, psycholinguistics (reviews of current research), introductions to psycholinguistics and to experimental methodology.
- Carrying out and publishing research on sentence processing (computational modeling and/or experimental work (e.g., eye-tracking, ERP, self-paced reading). For examples of our research, see: https://vasishth.github.io/publications.html.
- Participation in lab discussions and research collaborations.
Qualifications that you should have:
- A PhD in linguistics, psychology, or some related discipline. In exceptional circumstances, I will consider a prospective PhD student (with a full postdoc salary) who is willing to teach as well as do a PhD with me.
- Published scientific work.
- A background in sentence comprehension research (modeling or experimental or both).
- A solid quantitative background (basic fluency in mathematics and statistical computing at the level needed for statistical modeling and data analysis in psycholinguistics).
An ability to teach in German is desirable but not necessary. A high level of English fluency is expected, especially in writing.
The University and the linguistics department:
The University of Potsdam's Linguistics department is located in Golm, which is a suburb of the city Potsdam, and which can be reached within 40 minutes or so from Berlin through a direct train connection. The linguistics department has a broad focus on almost all areas relating to linguistics (syntax, morphology, semantics, phonetics/phonology, language acquisition, sentence comprehension and production, computational linguistics). The research is highly interdisciplinary, involving collaborations with psychology and mathematics, among other areas. We are a well-funded lab, with projects in a collaborative research grant (SFB 1287) on variability, as well as through individual grants.
The research focus of my lab:
Our lab currently consists of six postdocs (see here), and three guest professors who work closely with lab members. We work mostly on models of sentence comprehension, developing both implemented computational models as well as doing experimental work to evaluate these models.
Historically, our postdocs have been very successful in getting professorships: Lena Jäger, Sol Lago, Titus von der Malsburg, Daniel Schad, João Veríssimo, Samar Husain, Bruno Nicenboim. One of our graduates, Felix Engelmann, has his own start-up in Berlin.
For representative recent work from our lab, see:
- Himanshu Yadav, Garrett Smith, Sebastian Reich, and Shravan Vasishth. Number feature distortion modulates cue-based retrieval in reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 129, 2023.
- Shravan Vasishth and Felix Engelmann. Sentence Comprehension as a Cognitive Process: A Computational Approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2022.
- Dario Paape and Shravan Vasishth. Estimating the true cost of garden-pathing: A computational model of latent cognitive processes. Cognitive Science, 46:e13186, 2022.
- Bruno Nicenboim, Shravan Vasishth, and Frank Rösler. Are words pre-activated probabilistically during sentence comprehension? Evidence from new data and a Bayesian random-effects meta-analysis using publicly available data. Neuropsychologia, 142, 2020.
How to apply:
To apply, please send me an email (vasishth@uni-potsdam.de) with subject line "Postdoc position 2023", attaching a CV, a one-page statement of interest (research and teaching), copies of any publications (including the dissertation), and names of two or three referees that I can contact. The application period remains open until filled, but I hope to make a decision by end-July 2023 at the latest.
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