PhD positions in language documentation and description

Do you want to attend graduate education with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favorable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a PhD student position at Uppsala University.

The Faculty of Languages at Uppsala University engages in teaching and research across a wide range of classical and contemporary languages and cultures, as well as linguistics and computational linguistics. This diversity of linguistic, literary and cultural orientations constitutes a core of humanities research and lays a solid foundation for fruitful collaborations within the faculty, but also with other disciplines and society at large.

The doctoral studies correspond to 4 years of full-time work, for which the PhD student receives a salary as an employee at the department. The PhD student is expected to conduct studies and research full-time as well as participate in and contribute to the department's activities. Teaching and/or administrative duties may add up to 20%, whereby the employment is extended by the corresponding time.

The Department of Linguistics and Philology carries out research and offers education in language studies and philology with a focus on the languages and cultures of Asia, the classical languages of Europe, general linguistics, and computational linguistics. Education is offered at the basic, advanced, and doctoral level. Some seventy persons work at the department. Together with students and partners, they create a multicultural and intellectually vibrant environment.

Duties

The main duty of a doctoral student is to conduct research within a chosen subject, guided by supervisors and in collaboration with fellow researchers. The doctoral studies will be conducted within the framework of one of the department's doctoral programmes on the topic of language documentation/description. We welcome projects that make a substantial contribution towards enhancing our knowledge of underdocumented languages, underdocumented language varieties, or underdocumented aspects of otherwise known languages. Projects may be fieldwork-based, make use of existing resources, or make use of innovative computational techniques to gather data. Projects that include methodological and theoretical innovation will be positively recognized.

Requirements

• To be eligible for doctoral education, you must fulfill the requirements for a master’s (second-cycle) degree in a subject relevant to the proposed PhD project, or have completed at least 240 credits in higher education, with at least 60 credits at Master’s level including an independent project worth at least 15 credits, or have acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way.
• Meet the specific entry requirements stated in the general syllabus for the doctoral programme at the department which most closely aligns with the applicants’s competence and research plan.
• Have documented skills in linguistic typology, philology, computational linguistics, field linguistics, and/or language documentation/description suitable for the proposed project.

Additional qualifications

• Experience that speaks to the feasibility of the applicant to carry out the proposed PhD project such as fieldwork experience or a pilot study.
• Analytic strength in language description as demonstrated in written work.

The application should include:

• A research plan of at most three pages excluding references.
• A CV of at most three pages.
• Your MA thesis (or equivalent).
• Other documents which the applicant would like to reference.

About the employment

The employment is a temporary position according to the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 § 7. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date: 1 September 2026 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala

Rules governing PhD students are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5, §§ 1-7 and in Uppsala University's rules and guidelines.

For further information about the position, please contact: Head of Department Dimitrios Iordanoglou, Dimitrios.iordanoglou@lingfil.uu.se or Director of PhD studies Meriem Beloucif, meriem.beloucif@lingfil.uu.se

Please submit your application by 2 March 2026, UFV-PA 2025/3967.

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