Postdoctoral Position in Linguistics

University of Antwerp

Belgium

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).