Multilingual Practices – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Multilingual Awareness and Multilingual Practices. Tallinn, Estonia, 22-24 November 2018. Deadline: 15 August 2018.

The conference considers all aspects of the linguistic and sociolinguistic competences and practices of bi-/multilingual speakers who cross existing social and linguistic boundaries, adopting or adapting themselves to new and overlapping linguistic spaces.

Organizers invite papers in all areas of research in bi-/multilingualism, whether or not linked directly to the overarching conference theme, including, but not limited to, linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, clinical linguistics, education, bi-/multilingual societies.

The language of the conference is English.

MULTIPLES (Research Centre for Multilingual Practices and Language Learning in Society) seeks to recruit a PhD candidate to work on a project titled “Language and employability. A sociolinguistic ethnography of the activation of migrant job seekers in Flanders”, financed by the Special Research Fund at Ghent University.

Project description
The research is situated in the domain of sociolinguistics. The project proposes an ethnographic analysis of the activation trajectories in which migrant job seekers are inserted in Flemish Belgium. The project’s goal is to acquire insight in the role of language in the different stages of these trajectories, focusing on the relation between small-scale interactional practices, policy requirements and public macro-discourses on integration, linguistic diversity and work. The project will analyze the implementation of language policies in daily institutional practice, the logics that underpin these policies, the ways in which counselors, teachers and job seekers negotiate these policies, and the eventual outcomes of these policies for the different actors involved. Data will be collected through conducting participant observation in the Flemish employment agency and its partner organizations, interviewing counselors, teachers and job seekers and collecting policy documents.

Your profile
–       master’s degree in linguistics, communication, anthropology or a related discipline, obtained with good grades before the start of the project
–       good social and communicative skills
–       capacity for independent research
–       willingness to carry out ethnographic fieldwork
–       excellent competence in Dutch
–       good academic skills in English

Your tasks
–       collecting and analyzing ethnographic data
–       preparing a PhD on the basis of the project
–       preparing individual and joint publications for national and international scientific journals
–       presenting research at national and international conferences

We offer: a 48-month PhD position at Ghent University (Research Centre MULTIPLES & Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication), starting 1 January 2017.

How to apply
Applicants must submit the following documents:
– a motivation letter, curriculum vitae and copy of the master’s degree, merged into one PDF document
– a piece of writing (e.g. a student paper) in English or in Dutch which demonstrates the applicant’s academic competences

Applications are to be sent by e-mail to prof. dr. Sarah Van Hoof (sarah.vanhoof[at]ugent.be). The deadline for application is 5 December 2016, 23:59 (CET).

More information
For inquiries, please contact Sarah Van Hoof (sarah.vanhoof[at]ugent.be).