Department of Psychology

Location: Egham
Salary: £37,467 to £39,608
Post Type: Full Time
Closing Date: 23.59 hours GMT on Wednesday 01 February 2023
Reference: 1222-568

Post-Doctoral Research Assistant on the project “Is the cultural shift to written communication changing language?”

Psychology Department 

Applications are invited for a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant position on the Leverhulme-funded project: “Is the cultural shift to written communication changing language?”. The position is for 3 years, starting on April 3, 2023 or early Summer.

The project examines how the shift from spoken to written communication over the last 20 years is changing language. Languages have evolved over tens of thousands of years to optimize spoken communication. However, over the last 20 years, humans have begun to communicate primarily through written language. This shift is interesting for understanding of language evolution because the words that are easiest to type and read are not the ones that are easiest to say and understand. This project will use historical trends and experimental methods to test whether the shift to written communication is changing language. It will exploit a natural experiment in how we use language to probe a fundamental aspect of humanity at the biology-culture interface.

Applicants should have a PhD in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Linguistics, or a related field. They should have experience in running experiments as well as the computational skills for data extraction and processing (e.g., ability to work with Google Ngram). 

For more information, you can email the PI at shiri.lev-ari@rhul.ac.uk.

To view further details of this post and to apply please visit https://jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk. For queries on the application process the Human Resources Department can be contacted by email at: recruitment@rhul.ac.uk.

Please quote the reference: 1222-568
Closing Date: 23:59, 01 February 2023

Royal Holloway is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and encourages applications from all people regardless of age, disability, gender, marital status, parental status, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or trans status or history. More information on our structures and initiatives around EDI, including information on staff diversity networks, can be found on our Equality and Diversity Intranet page

Further details: Job Description & Person Specification

The university has adopted hybrid working for some roles therefore some remote working may be possible for this role.

Royal Holloway is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and encourages applications from all people regardless of age, disability, gender, marital status, parental status, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or trans status or history. More information on our structures and initiatives around EDI, including information on staff diversity networks, can be found on our Equality and Diversity Intranet page.