{"id":143345,"date":"2023-10-26T10:35:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T08:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cde.ual.es\/?p=143345"},"modified":"2023-10-26T10:35:24","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T08:35:24","slug":"phd-position-erc-project-in-university-of-cape-town-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cde.ual.es\/en\/phd-position-erc-project-in-university-of-cape-town-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"PhD position ERC project in University of Cape Town. South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The position at the San and Khoi Centre will cover 3 years of PhD studies at the University of Cape Town with the total scholarship sum of approx. 480.000 rand or 160.000 rand per year.<\/p>\n

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The San and Khoi Centre at the University of Cape Town invites applications for a PhD position in the project \u201cMultilingual worlds \u2013 neglected histories. Uncovering their emergence, continuity and loss in past and present societies\u201d Horizon 2020 Grant ERC-Consolidator Grant (MULTILING-HIST) coordinated by the University of Warsaw, Poland.<\/p>\n

The fundamental aim of the project is to reconstruct, explain and better understand the mechanisms and causality of the processes behind the emergence, continuity, reduction, and loss (as well as possible re-emergence) of multilingualism in differing historical, geographical, social, political, and cultural contexts. The project embraces historical and contemporary multilingual milieux from four regions relevant for understanding the causal frameworks underlying multilingual trajectories, i.e., selected historical multilingual hotspots from Central-Eastern Europe, Mesoamerica, the Archipelago of Vanuatu, and South Africa. The case studies, including the South African part of the project, will offer a novel possibility to examine the \u2018invisibility\u2019 of multilingualism and uncover its neglected history(ies). To achieve these goals, the project adopts a multidisciplinary approach: it combines historical and contemporary data, qualitative and quantitative methods as well as mathematical modeling, data-driven mapping, and GIS mapping.<\/p>\n

The PhD candidate is expected to study the socio-historical aspects of multilingualism related to Khoi and\/or San communities spread across the Western-Cape that used to speak Khoi and\/or San varieties and the gradual language loss among Khoi and\/or San speakers and their transition to other linguistic communities (from the late 18th to the 21st century). The candidate will explore multi-level dimensions of historical and contemporary multilingualism and examine the synchrony and diachrony of multilingualism at an individual and societal level from a historical and sociolinguistic perspective. Among others, the candidate will focus on multilingual competence and socialization, vertical and horizontal transmission, inter-ethnic marriages and relationships, language ideologies and linguistic practices. The candidate will use both qualitative (e.g., language biographies and language portraits) and quantitative tools (e.g., questionnaires developed in the MULITLING-HIST project) and investigate the historical multilingualism of Khoi and\/or San speakers\/communities through both archival and field research.<\/p>\n

REQUIREMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

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1. complete their PhD dissertation within 3 years
\n2. conduct archival queries and analysis of historical sources
\n3. conduct fieldwork activities in selected communities in the Western Cape, focusing on their sociolinguistic profiles (e.g., language attitudes and behaviors, language ideologies, multilingual competences…)
\n4. analyze and interpret quantitative and qualitative data obtained in archival research and fieldwork
\n5. actively participate in the MULTILING-HIST project and collaborate with other team members in South Africa and overseas
\n6. prepare individual and co-authored publications resulting from the research.<\/p>\n

The applicant is required to hold a MA degree in linguistics (preferably sociolinguistics or general linguistics) or related fields (e.g., history). The following aspects will be taken into consideration during the selection process:
\n1. experience in fieldwork
\n2. experience in archival queries
\n3. experience in qualitative and quantitative methods
\n4. expertise in (South African) multilingualism and (historical) sociolinguistics
\n5. knowledge of African languages of South Africa and other Indigenous African languages
\n6. familiarity with Khoi and\/or San languages and their histories
\n7. community-based activist work.<\/p>\n

Organisation\/Company<\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Cape Town<\/div>\n

Department<\/strong><\/p>\n

Centre for African Studies<\/div>\n

Research Field<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Language sciences \u00bb Linguistics<\/div>\n
History \u00bb Other<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Researcher Profile<\/strong><\/p>\n

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First Stage Researcher (R1)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Country<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Africa<\/div>\n

Application Deadline<\/strong><\/p>\n