PhD position on socio-emotional effects of child language brokering in multilingual families

About the position

Children from immigrant families often translate and mediate for others (typically their parents), a phenomenon called “child language brokering”. Brokering occurs in a variety of contexts: at home, at schools, and in medical offices. Research shows that child language brokering may have positive and negative effects on children’s socio-emotional development and on child-parent relationships, depending on when and where brokering occurs. There are also some indications that brokering affects children’s and parents’ development of the first and second language, but these effects remain largely unexplored.

In this PhD project, you will investigate how brokering experiences shape emotions and attitudes in child brokers and their parents. The project is part of an NWO-funded project, consisting of two PhD students and a team of supervisors. The other PhD project focuses on the effects of brokering on linguistic outcomes.

You will conduct a series of studies to investigate the emotions and attitudes towards brokering in children and their parents across more informal (home) and more formal (school, health care) contexts. You will also investigate how these emotions and attitudes towards brokering are associated with family communication, both concurrently and over time. You will use a variety of methods, including semi-structured interviews, diary-based methods (Experience Sampling Method), scenario-based judgement tasks, attitude scales, and parent-child joint problem-solving and narrative tasks. Together, the studies you will conduct will inform us about when and how brokering has positive effects on emotions, attitudes and family communication, and when children and parents should be protected from potentially harmful experiences.

This is what you will be doing

You will perform the following tasks and activities:

• reviewing literature on the effects of language brokering on emotions and attitudes;
• carrying out in-depth studies to investigate the effects of child language brokering on attitudes and emotions, and on family communication and family dynamics;
• collaborating in an interdisciplinary research team;
• committing to open science practices such as pre-registering studies;
• contributing to knowledge utilization (outreach) activities undertaken by the team;
• submission of a PhD thesis within the period of appointment;
• presenting intermediate research results at workshops and conferences;
• participating in the Research School and Faculty of Humanities PhD training programmes;
• co-teaching courses at BA-level in the second and third year of the appointment (maximum 0,2 fte per year).

This is what we ask of you

• a completed Master's degree in Linguistics, Education, Psychology, Anthropology or a related field;
• excellent research skills demonstrated by a Master thesis;
• solid knowledge of quantitative and/or qualitative research methods;
• strong communicative and organizational skills, a cooperative attitude and commitment to team science;
• enthusiasm for communicating academic research to non-academic audiences;
• enthusiasm for teaching;
• participation in the ACLC and the national research school training program;
• excellent proficiency in English for academic purposes;
• proficiency in Dutch (B2 level or higher), sufficient to conduct data collection;
• proficiency in a widely spoken heritage language (e.g., Arabic, Turkish, Polish) is a plus.

Please note that if you already hold a doctorate/PhD or are working towards obtaining a similar degree elsewhere, you will not be admitted to a doctoral programme at the UvA.

This is what else we offer you

We offer a temporary employment contract for the period of 48 months. The first contract will be for 16 months, with an extension for the following 32 months, contingent on a positive performance evaluation within the first 12 months. The preferred starting date is 01 February 2027;

Based on a full-time appointment (38 hours per week) the gross monthly salary will range from €3.204 in the first year to €4.051 (scale P) in the last year. This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile PhD candidate applicable. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable;

Excellent possibilities for further professional development and education;

Excellent support research facilities (such as the Speech Lab);

PhD candidates have free access to courses offered by the Graduate School of Humanities and the Dutch National Research Schools.

This is where you will be working

You will be appointed at the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC) as part of the project “Small voices, big words: Effects of child language brokering in immigrant families”, led by dr. Josje Verhagen and funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

This project consists of two interconnected PhD projects: one looks at the effects of child language brokering on socio-emotional outcomes and the other at linguistic outcomes. Each PhD will have their own supervision team consisting of specialized members of staff (dr. Josje Verhagen and dr. Yeşim Sevinç for the present project). You will meet regularly within these teams as well as in the larger project team.

The Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication is one of the five Research Schools within the Amsterdam Institute for Humanities Research. Within the University of Amsterdam, the ACLC represents a thriving linguistics community, home to several research groups that you can join. The current project falls under the Language Learning, Literacy and Multilingualism research group. The ACLC also has an active PhD community that meets formally and informally.

Questions?

For questions about the position or department, you can contact dr. Josje Verhagen, j.verhagen@uva.nl

Application

If you recognize yourself in the profile and are interested in this position (i.e., PhD 1 in the larger project), we look forward to receiving your application. Applications should include the following information (submitted in one .pdf):

• A letter of motivation.
• A full academic CV.
• A list of relevant BA modules and all Master-level modules you have taken, with an official transcript of grades.
• The names and contact details of two referents, including your thesis advisor, who may be approached by the selection committee.
• A writing sample, for example a published paper or (a chapter from) your MA thesis.

The vacancy closes on 19 October 2026. The first round of interviews will take place during the weeks of 16 or 23 November.

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