PhD position in Innsbruck with Michael Ustaszewski

After finishing our Erasmus Mundus LCT Master in 2016 Michael Ustaszewski is now a postdoc assistant at the University of Innsbruck, and Unit Manager (liaison with the Department of Translation Studies) at the Innsbruck Translation Centre. His group is working on Corpus-Based Translation and asked us to publish this Call for PhD Position Candidates:

The Department of Translation Studies at the University of Innsbruck invites applications for a PhD position in the framework of the two-year research project “TransBank: A Meta-Corpus for Translation Research” funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The goal of the project is to build a large, open and expandable bank of translated texts and their original texts. Its main innovative feature is the ability to exploit a rich set of metadata labels characterising each text and text pair for the compilation and download of sub-corpora, tailored to the requirements of specific translation-related research questions.

The PhD student will be involved in all stages of the corpus building process, thus having the opportunity to gather translation data relevant to his/her specific research interest. The student will work autonomously on the development of the metadata labelset and on collecting translation data, on the basis of which he or she will conduct quantitative and/or qualitative analyses for his/her thesis. Work will be carried out in close collaboration with the project’s two principal investigators and two MA students.

The following requirements are looked for in the successful candidate:

• Master’s degree in Translation Studies, Corpus Linguistics,
• Computational Linguistics or a related field
• proven familiarity with translation theory
• strong interest in data-driven research methodologies and linguistic annotation
• excellent teamwork skills
• proficiency in English on a level suitable for written and spoken scientific communication
• solid programming skills in a scripting language (e.g. Python) will be an asset, as will knowledge of German or any other language(s)

The two-year position with a weekly working time of 20 hours (50%) commences in September 2017 and offers an annual stipend of € 19,117 plus allowances for conference attendance. The position involves enrolment in the PhD programme in Linguistics and Media Studies at the University of Innsbruck.

Applications should include:

1. A cover letter (1 page maximum) that relates the candidate’s  experience and interest in the TransBank project
2. A two-page thesis proposal describing the research question and methodology underlying the candidate’s envisaged analyses using TransBank data
3. A CV listing any publications
4. Copies of relevant diplomas and certificates
5. A recommendation letter by the candidate’s MA thesis supervisor or a university professor
6. A copy of the MA thesis or the latest draft

To apply, please submit the documents in two PDF files (one containing documents 1 to 5, one containing document 6) by 10 April 2017 via the upload form at http://transbank.info/jobs

Shortlisted applicants will be interviewed in person or via Skype towards the end of April.

Further information:

Details on the research project can be found on the project website http:/www.transbank.info
For enquiries about the position and the application process, please contact mail[at]transbank.info
Information about the Department of Translation Studies at the University of Innsbruck: http://translation.uibk.ac.at
For information on the PhD programme in Linguistics and Media Studies at the University of Innsbruck and the enrolment process, please refer to
https://www.uibk.ac.at/studium/angebot/phd-sprach-und-medienwissenschaft/index.html.en