Research Assistant

Are you an ambitious researcher looking for your next challenge? Do you have a degree in the field of linguistics, a background in ethnographic research and experience of using ELAN, or similar open-access software tools, for video annotation and analysis? Do you want to further your career in one of the UKs leading research intensive Universities?

Project title: Signs Beyond Borders: Meaning-making across Sign and Spoken Languages.

You will work with Dr Elisabetta Adami, University Academic Fellow in Multimodality, Dr James Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Language Education, and Professor Ruth Swanwick, Professor in Deaf Education, to support, develop and collaborate on their research project Signs Beyond Borders: Meaning-making across Sign and Spoken Languages.

We will be looking at how deaf/hearing interactants use nonverbal resources and communicative strategies to co-construct situated understanding beyond cultural and linguistic barriers, to fulfil their communicative needs in specific situations of daily life, in shops/streets, in families, at school, and in interpreter-mediated events. The project will build a transdisciplinary approach by integrating multimodality, sign and spoken language interaction, and translanguaging/multilingualism. To focus on these perspectives and develop this approach in action, the project will involve a series of seminars for close scrutiny of video-recorded data of sign/spoken language interactions among deaf/hearing children and adults who do not share the same linguistic resources.

With a degree in the field of linguistics, you will have experience of ethnographic research and will know how to use ELAN (or similar open-access software tools) for video annotation and analysis. You will have excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of people. You will also possess excellent analytical and writing skills and the ability to deal with a variety of tasks, working to set deadlines. The ability to work alone and as part of a team are essential, along with strong organisational skills. 

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact:

Dr Elisabetta Adami, University Academic Fellow in Multimodal Communication 

Tel: +44 (0)113 343 0784, email: e.adami@leeds.ac.uk