The Visual Language Lab within the Department of Communication and Cognition of the School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University, invites applications for a postdoctoral position with expertise in linguistic typology and corpus analysis. The successful candidate will join a diverse and international research team with Dr. Neil Cohn on the TINTIN Project funded by the European Research Council. This postdoctoral researcher will help analyze a cross-cultural corpus of annotated comics for the linguistic structure of their visual and multimodal properties. Our aims are to examine the corpus for typological trends of the visual structures themselves, and/or in relation to the typology of spoken or signed languages. Additional information about this research topic and research team can be found at www.visuallanguagelab.com/tintin.

• PhD degree (completed or to be defended) in corpus linguistics, cognitive science, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, communication science, or a related field.
• Experience with corpus analysis and typological analysis.
• Expertise in statistical analysis, data science, and/or data modeling.
• An accessible attitude, can function well in a team, and can establish and maintain interpersonal relations, with excellent communication skills in English.
• Ability to take initiative, be organized, be flexible, and work independently
• Strongly motivated to carry out internationally competitive and cutting-edge research.
• An interest in comics, language, cognition, and/or visual media.

Fixed-term contract: 2 years.

• A full-time appointment for a period of up to 2 years, with an intermediate evaluation after 9 months. Ideal start date is January 2023 but as early as November 2022 may be possible.
• The post doc position will be ranked in the Dutch university job ranking system (UFO) as a researcher.
• The starting gross monthly salary for a full-time appointment is (minimally) € 3282,- in scale 10 up to (maximally) € 3691,-. 
• A holiday allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3% (annually).
• Tilburg University is one of the best non-profit employers in the Netherlands and offers very good fringe benefits such as an options model for terms and conditions of employment and reimbursement of moving expenses, also including excellent technical infrastructure, savings schemes and excellent sport facilities. The collective labor agreement of the Dutch Universities applies.
• Researchers from outside the Netherlands may qualify for a temporary tax-free allowance equal to 30% of their taxable salary. The University will apply for such an allowance on their behalf.
• The University will provide assistance in finding suitable accommodation (for foreign employees).

Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences

Research and education at the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD) has a unique focus on humans in the context of the globalizing digital society, on the development of artificial intelligence and interactive technologies, on their impact on communication, culture and society, and on moral and existential challenges that arise. The School of Humanities and Digital Sciences consists of four departments: Communication and Cognition, Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence, Culture Studies and Philosophy; several research institutes and a faculty office. Also the University College Tilburg is part of the School. Each year around 275 students commence a Bachelor or (Pre) Master Program. The School has approximately 2000 students and 250 employees.

Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences

The department of Communication and Cognition (DCC) studies cognitive and social aspects of human communication through a multidisciplinary approach combining careful experimentation with survey methods, corpus analyses and computational modeling. Core research domains include communication and technology, cross-cultural communication, information visualisation, marketing and business communication, language production, and non-verbal communication.

New media and other digital technologies play an increasingly important role in the research and teaching of the department. These technologies shape how we live, learn and work, and strongly influence how we communicate with colleagues, family and friends. Our research and teaching contributes to developing better digital communication systems, with applications in eHealth, affective computing, media, journalism and education.