Postdoctoral Position in Linguistics

University of Antwerp

Department: Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts

University: University of Antwerp, Belgium

Position Type: Full-time doctoral scholarship

Start Date: 2 March 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter

Application Deadline: 10 December 2025

Position Overview

The Department of Linguistics seeks a doctoral scholarship holder to investigate L2 writing in unaided and GenAI-assisted contexts. The research will focus on how writing environment and task type (argumentative vs. narrative) affect writing quality, including functional adequacy, accuracy, syntactic complexity, and lexical diversity. The project will be supervised by Prof. Jennifer Thewissen.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct research leading to a PhD thesis in Learner Corpus Research and GenAI-assisted writing.
• Analyse a new L2 writing dataset and publish findings in national and international conferences and journals.
• Perform limited teaching and research support tasks for the Department of Linguistics.
• Join the Grammar & Pragmatics (GaP) research group and the Learner Language Network (LeLaN).

Qualifications

• Master’s degree (or soon-to-be completed) in Linguistics, Translation and Interpreting, or a related field.
• Strong academic record and experience in Learner Corpus Research and/or Second Language Acquisition.
• Comfortable using digital tools for corpus and quantitative analysis (e.g., SketchEngine, statistical packages).
• Foundational knowledge of statistical methods for learner language analysis and willingness to learn advanced methods.
• (Near-)native English proficiency and fluency in Dutch; additional languages are an asset.
• Strong academic writing skills in English.
• Self-motivated, resilient, collaborative, and proactive in problem-solving and meeting deadlines.

What We Offer

• One-year doctoral scholarship, renewable up to four years following positive evaluation.
• Monthly scholarship according to standard doctoral rates, plus ecocheques, internet allowance, and commuting support.
• Dynamic working environment at the City Campus (Stadscampus).

Application Instructions

Required Documents:

1. Motivation letter
2. Academic CV
3. (Provisional) academic transcripts
4. Academic text demonstrating writing skills (e.g., Master’s thesis or paper)

Application Portal: University of Antwerp Online Application

Interview Date: 15 January 2026

Contacts:

• Application questions: jobs@uantwerpen.be
• Position-specific questions: Prof. Jennifer Thewissen – jennifer.thewissen@uantwerpen.be

The University of Antwerp is committed to diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities and provides support for international staff integration.

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