Duration
1 year (100%)
With the objective to develop and submit a funding request for a PhD project

The scholarship provides funding for one year in order to give a recent MA graduate the opportunity to develop an own research project. Within the one-year period, the candidate will draft a proposal and submit a funding application for a competitive support programme which will cover the duration of the PhD project (e.g. the Flemish Research Foundation FWO).

Starting date
Within the academic year 2023/24, according to availability

Context
Project “Linguistic Boundaries and Borders in Language Making”

The scholarship is funded by the Research Council of Vrije Universiteit Brussel as part of the seed funding project “Linguistic Boundaries and Borders in Language Making” (Prof. Dr. Philipp Krämer).

The project investigates processes of Language Making, i.e. processes in which languages are conceptualized as clearly delimited entities with their own norms and labels. The objective of the project is a theoretical contribution to sociolinguistics which consists in refining and expanding the existing Language Making framework on several levels, e.g. by incorporating the notions of borders and boundaries. It investigates
(A) the interplay of political bodies with conceptions of linguistic entities delimited by borders in physical and territorial space.
(B) the effects of social boundaries which set norms to delimit the contours of linguistic structures and functions to form a language or variety of its own.

The PhD project to be developed is supposed to cover one or several in-depth empirical case studies based on the Language Making framework. The focus of the project is on French in the Western European context and/or on Creole languages in postcolonial societies; integrating other linguistic contexts in a comparative perspective is possible and welcome.

Your profile

• recently completed MA degree or equivalent with a focus on linguistics (or MA thesis ready to be submitted in the upcoming 3 months)
• keen interest in sociolinguistics
• excellent command of French and English
• passion for research and enthusiasm for the perspective of working on a PhD project during the years following the funding application (if funding is awarded)
• ability to work in an independent, cooperative, and structured way with a strict deadline for the submission of the project

What we offer

• Funding for one year at the level of a 100% PhD scholarship (conform to funding scheme of Flemish tertiary education and research institutions)
• Close cooperation with the P.I. in the development and drafting of the funding request
• A stimulating work context in the Brussels Centre for Language Studies with colleagues working on a wide array of languages and subfields of linguistics
• A highly diverse environment at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in the multilingual city of Brussels

How to apply?
Please submit the following documents:

• CV
• Letter of motivation (1-2 pages max.)
• Transcript of records and latest diploma (MA or equivalent if available)
• Abstract of your MA thesis (ca. 1/2 page)

Applications may be submitted in French, English, Dutch, German or any French-based Creole language (or a mix thereof).

Please submit your application with no more than 4 separate files (PDF)
via e-mail to
philipp.kramer@vub.be

Deadline
June 16th, 2023

Selection interviews

• via videoconference during the month of July
• on campus: July 12th or 13th for candidates located in Brussels or nearby

Contact / information
Prof. Dr. Philipp Krämer
philipp.kramer@vub.be