Offer Description
The Prosodic and Gestural Studies Research Group (GREPG) in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) invites applications for a fully funded PhD position within the ERC Advanced Grant PROSODY-SENSES: Prosody across senses: Testing a reconceptualization of prosody as a modality-neutral component of language governing spoken, visual and tactile signals, led by Prof. Pilar Prieto.
PhD1: Multisensory Prosody in Spoken Catalan
The successful candidate will contribute to Strand 1 of the project, investigating the multisensory implementation of prosody in spoken Catalan. The project will examine how prominence and grouping are jointly realized through speech, facial movements, head movements, manual gestures, and hand pressure signals. Drawing on controlled production experiments and multimodal corpora, the candidate will combine acoustic, kinematic, and linguistic analyses with three-dimensional motion capture to investigate modality-neutral principles of prosodic organization. The candidate will contribute to the development of annotation protocols and quantitative analyses for modelling the magnitude and temporal coordination of prosodic cues across speech data, working closely with the ERC postdoctoral researcher responsible for multimodal motion-capture modelling.
The dissertation will follow an article-based format, comprising three to four publishable papers in international peer-reviewed journals. The candidate will be jointly supervised by Dr. Patrick L. Rohrer (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) and Prof. Pilar Prieto (ICREA–Universitat Pompeu Fabra), and will also benefit from close co-supervision and methodological training provided by one of the ERC-funded postdoctoral researchers specializing in multimodal motion-capture modelling. Together, this supervisory team will provide complementary expertise in multimodal communication, prosody, and advanced motion-capture methodologies.
Main Duties
- Design and conduct experimental studies on the multisensory production of prosody in Catalan.
- Collect multimodal datasets using synchronized audio-video recording and optical motion capture.
- Annotate and analyse acoustic, facial, head, and manual movement data.
- Contribute to the development of quantitative models of multimodal prosodic coordination.
- Publish research articles in leading international journals.
- Present results at international conferences.
- Participate actively in project meetings, seminars, workshops, and dissemination activities.
- Contribute to collaborative activities within the ERC project.
Where to apply
Website: https://apply.interfolio.com/190955
Requirements
Research Field: Language sciences » Linguistics
Education Level: PhD or equivalent
Skills/Qualifications
- Hold (or be close to completing) a Master's degree in Linguistics, Experimental Phonetics, Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Psychology, Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
- Demonstrate strong interest in speech/multisensory prosody, multimodal communication, language production, or experimental phonetics.
- Have experience with experimental research and quantitative data analysis.
- Have previous experience writing scientific articles or conference papers.
- Demonstrate excellent teamwork and communication skills.
- Have excellent written and spoken English.
- Native or near-native proficiency in Catalan is strongly preferred, as the project involves the collection and analysis of Catalan spoken language.
- Experience with motion capture, audiovisual annotation, ELAN, Praat, R, or Python will be considered an advantage.
Specific Requirements
Applicants should submit the following documents:
- Cover letter
- Curriculum vitae
- Academic transcripts (Bachelor's and Master's)
- Copy of MA or MSc degree (or expected completion certificate)
- One writing sample (published paper, Master's thesis chapter, or equivalent)
- Contact details of two academic referees
- Copy of passport or national identity card
Languages: CATALAN
Level: Excellent
Additional Information
Benefits
- A fully funded four-year doctoral position funded by the ERC Advanced Grant PROSODY-SENSES.
- Employment as a doctoral researcher at Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
- The position offers a highly competitive salary by Spanish doctoral funding standards (2025 scales; subject to annual updates):
- Years 1–2: €22.607,28 gross per year (approx €1880 net)
- Year 3: €23.964,96 gross per year (approx €2000 net)
- Year 4: €29.056,2€ gross per year (approx €2.420€)
- Full coverage of the tuition fees for the Doctoral Degree at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).
- Full social security coverage and employment benefits according to Spanish labour legislation.
- State-of-the-art research infrastructure, including optical motion capture, eye-tracking, and audiovisual speech analysis facilities.
- Funding for conference attendance, international research visits, and specialized training.
- An outstanding interdisciplinary research environment within an ERC Advanced Grant.
Eligibility criteria
- Academic excellence and previous research experience (40%)
- Quality and relevance of Master's thesis and previous publications (25%)
- Fit with the scientific objectives of PROSODY-SENSES (20%)
- Personal interview, during which the candidate's motivation, communication skills, research potential, knowledge of the research area, ability to work collaboratively, and overall fit with the project and its interdisciplinary research environment will be assessed (15%).
Selection process
Candidates obtaining at least 75/100 on the first three points may be invited for an interview.
Work Location(s)
Number of offers available: 1
Company/Institute: Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Country: Spain
State/Province: Barcelona
City: Barcelona
Postal Code: 08018
Street: Roc Boronat, 138
Contact
City: Barcelona
Website: http://www.upf.edu/dtcl
Street: carrer Roc Boronat, 138, 08018 Barcelona
Postal Code: 08018
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