University of Bern – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Open rank professorship in social anthropology, University of Bern, Switzerland. Deadline: 15 February 2026.

The Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies of University of Bern announces a professorship (100%, open rank) for Social Anthropology, starting 1. August 2027. The successful candidate will represent the discipline of social anthropology in its entirety with a special focus on the anthropology of migration.

The position is advertised as open rank (tenure-track Assistant Professorship, Associate Professorship, or Full Professorship). Appointment level will be decided by the appointment committee on the basis of candidates’ prior experience and qualifications.

The post holder’s expertise will complement and broaden the existing research areas within Social Anthropology in Bern. They will contribute to teaching on the Bachelor’s degree in Social Anthropology and the Master’s degrees in MASA (Master in Social Anthropology), ATS (Anthropology of Transnationalism and the State) and CREOLE (Cultural Differences and Transnational Processes). The languages of instruction are German and English.

The post holder will also participate in the coordination of departmental activities as co-director of the Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies. The primary language of administration is German. Candidates should therefore possess the corresponding German-language skills or be prepared to acquire them within two years of appointment. The post holder will supervise junior scholars in their research area and will actively seek external funding to support their research.

Associate Professorship in Sociolinguistic Methods and Analysis, Center for the Study of Language and Society, University of Bern, Switzerland. Deadline: 10 February 2019.

The Institute seeks a scholar who can work and train both quantitatively and qualitatively in the discipline, and impart the strengths of both to his/her students. In their own research, applicants need to work across a range of different empirical approaches and can teach courses which integrate method and hands-on practice as well as theory, including in real-world applications of sociolinguistics.

Relevant subdisciplines include, but should not be seen as limited to: forensic sociolinguistics, socio-pragmatics, ethnography, linguistic anthropology, interactional sociolinguistics, variationist sociolinguistics, perceptual sociolinguistics, linguistic landscapes, applied sociolinguistics, language policy, historical sociolinguistics, critical sociolinguistics, and cognitive sociolinguistics.