"Research Assistant Professor"

The Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS) is one of the constituent departments of the Faculty of Humanities, specializing in cutting-edge language science research and education. With a team of over 50 committed academic and teaching staff members, CBS serves as a dynamic hub for interdisciplinary scholarship spanning theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics and second language acquisition, language neuroscience and neurocognitive disorders, speech processing, communication disorders and clinical applications, translation and interpretation, bilingual business communication, language education, and language technology with computational innovations. Central to its mission is the strategic integration of these diverse yet complementary disciplines, where it actively pioneers new methodologies in both fundamental research and practical applications. By bridging theoretical inquiry with technological advancements in language data analytics and artificial intelligence, it advances solutions for multilingual challenges in educational, clinical, and professional domains. The Department is also devoted to offering high-quality programmes at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels in Chinese Linguistics, Chinese Language Teaching, Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, Speech Therapy, Translating and Interpreting, Bilingual Corporate Communication, Generative Artificial Intelligence in Humanities, as well as Korean/Japanese language and culture courses at the bachelor's level. Within the Department, there is a Speech Therapy Unit, a Research Centre for Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience, and a Centre for Translation Studies. More information about the Department can be found at http://www.cbs.polyu.edu.hk/.

Duties

The appointee will be required to:

• conduct research as the main duty and actively pursue external research grants, such as General Research Fund, as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator;
• provide quality teaching at undergraduate or postgraduate levels;
• contribute to departmental service; and
• perform any other duties as assigned by the Head of Department or his/her delegates.

Qualifications

Applicants should:

• have a PhD degree in the areas of Linguistics or a closely related discipline;
• preferably possess at least two years of postdoctoral research experience;
• possess substantial experience in conducting experiments with child participants using behavioral paradigms, eye-tracking, and/or brain-imaging techniques;
• demonstrate a strong record of high-quality academic publications in the field of child language development;
• be proficient in major programming languages commonly used in experimental linguistic research (e.g., R, MATLAB, Python);
• exhibit a high level of proficiency in both spoken and written English and Chinese; and
• have knowledge of Cantonese, which is highly desirable, as the position involves conducting research with children in Hong Kong.

Conditions of Service

A highly competitive package including a medical benefits plan and a gratuity payable upon completion of the term which is normally for two to three years initially, with possibility of extension.

Application

Please submit an application through PolyU’s career website. Consideration of applications will commence on 29 August 2025 until the position is filled. The University’s Personal Information Collection Statement for recruitment can be found at https://www.polyu.edu.hk/hro/careers/pics_for_recruitment/.