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The Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS) in Mannheim, founded in 1964, is the central scientific institution for documenting and researching the German language in the present and recent history. The IDS has an annual budget of around 13.6 million euros and currently employs 220 staff members. It is part of the Leibniz Association, which includes 96 other non-university research and infrastructure institutions.
At the IDS, in the Department of Pragmatics, the research project "Syntax and the Body," funded by the Swedish Research Council, is seeking to fill the following position starting October 1, 2025:
Researcher (Post-Doc) (m/f/d)
(Reference number 06/2025)
with the regular weekly working hours of currently 31,6 hours (80%)
The employment relationship is limited to six years. The classification will be based on personal qualifications and assigned tasks, up to salary group 13 according to the TV-L collective agreement.
The project aims to investigate the interplay of linguistic and bodily resources in communicative action during social interaction, with a focus on comparing the relationships across different languages. This will be examined through a conversation-analytic and interactional linguistic approach, based on video recordings of conversations and other social events involving verbal interaction. Primarily, qualitative research methods will be used, supplemented by quantitative methods.
We are looking for a researcher to investigate multimodal interaction, particularly in relation to the use of syntactic structures in coordination with various bodily resources, such as gaze, facial expression, object use, movement in space, etc. Your tasks will involve collecting and analyzing data from a Germanic language and a typologically different language (e.g., a Romance language), based on independently developed research questions. Research planning and parts of data analysis will be carried out within an international project team, focusing on comparable phenomena in the languages studied in the project (Chinese, Estonian, French, Japanese, Swedish). You will regularly present the project results at (inter)national conferences and in publications, sometimes in collaboration with the international project partners. The project offers opportunities for academic qualification in an internationally oriented research institute.
Main tasks will include:
- Independent development and processing of research questions in the field of conversation analysis regarding the interplay of language and body in spoken interaction
- Analysis and collection of data in two typologically different languages, preferably a Germanic and a Romance language
- Independent and joint presentations of project results at (inter)national conferences
- Independent and joint publications of project results, primarily in English
- Organization of workshops, panels, and conferences
- Collaboration with international partners
- Organization of field access and collection of field recordings (audio and video)
- Administrative or organizational tasks in the department
Following qualifications are important to us:
- A completed university degree and a completed PhD in linguistics (or a related social science relevant to the topic of the project)
- Very good knowledge of conversation analysis, interactional linguistics, and multimodal interaction research
- Basic knowledge of quantitative and corpus-linguistic methods
- Academic work on the grammar of spoken language in at least two different languages
- Independent, reliable, and committed work style
- Advanced experience in preparing data according to conversation-analytic criteria and standards (e.g., transcription, metadata documentation) and relevant tools (FOLKER, ELAN, etc.)
- Experience in teamwork and project management
- Experience in organizing academic events
- Very good knowledge of English (especially academic English)
- Experience in data collection and fieldwork
We offer:
The IDS offers an interesting research environment with excellent expertise in linguistic research and strong connections to the universities of Mannheim and Heidelberg. We also offer an attractive pension scheme, childcare cost subsidies, and performance-based remuneration according to the collective agreement for public sector employees (TV-L). Furthermore, we support our employees in their professional development.
The IDS aims for professional equality between women and men and strives to increase the proportion of women in areas where they are underrepresented. The compatibility of work and family is strongly promoted at the IDS. The IDS welcomes applications from people with disabilities.
Please submit your comprehensive written application, including a cover letter, CV, and certificates (compiled in a single PDF document with a maximum size of 5 MB), along with a scientific article authored by you. Send your application by email, quoting the reference number, to the following address by June 1, 2025:
Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS)
Human Resources
Email: bewerbungen(at)ids-mannheim.de
Interviews are scheduled for June 2025 and will be held via Zoom in English.
For further content-related inquiries, please contact the department head, Prof. Dr. Arnulf Deppermann, via email at deppermann(at)ids-mannheim.de.