Postdoc position in linguistic anthropology — Aboriginal Australian languages/cultures

The QUANTA project —"Evolution of Cognitive Tools for Quantification"— is a multi-national multi-disciplinary project funded by the European Research Council (ERC-Synergy) that investigates when, why, and how humans developed number systems, and why those vary so massively across cultures. The project brings together researchers from multiple disciplines and institutions in the investigation of the emergence of human quantification, counting, and numerical skills.

Exact quantification, including the ability to enumerate, produce tallies, etc., depends on both conceptual breakthroughs and cognitive tools such as numeral systems. These tools appear in striking diversity across cultures and manifest in different modalities (verbal, body-based, written, or material). To address the tantalizing questions of when, why, and how they emerged and evolved, we test two previously untestable key hypotheses: that conceptual breakthroughs and tools co-evolved, with different modalities coactively scaffolding the breakthroughs; and that the tools diversified in response to changing cultural requirements. Reconstructing this evolution is the prime goal of QUANTA.

We are looking for a highly motivated post-doctoral researcher with experience in Aboriginal Australian languages/cultures to join the QUANTA team based at ETH Zürich and led by PI Rafael Núñez. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to interact closely with the other three QUANTA teams based at University of Bergen, Norway (headquarters; PI Andrea Bender), Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (PI Russell Gray), and University of Bordeaux-CNRS, France (PI Francesco d’Errico).

• The successful candidate will be in charge of investigating in detail quantification and numeral systems in languages and cultures from Aboriginal Australia (including material artefacts such as message sticks, etc.)
• The successful candidate will take part in the research team’s academic and social activities.
• The working language is English.
• The position is full time (41 hours per week) by default, but can be reduced for care-work, health, or wellbeing. 
• The ideal starting date is October 1, 2024 (but starting date is somewhat flexible). The positions are for one year (until September 30, 2025) at ETH Zurich with the possibility of an extension at the QUANTA headquarters, the University of Bergen, Norway.

Candidates are required:

• to have a doctoral degree in linguistic anthropology (or related fields) before starting at ETH Zürich
• to have expertise and an excellent track in linguistic anthropology, ideally studying Australian aboriginal languages or cultures
• to be able to initiate interesting research sub-projects that could be developed somewhat independently, but in close collaboration with the rest of the QUANTA multi-disciplinary team.

• research and travel funding.
• a wide variety of ETH Zürich career development resources.
• connections to our international network of collaborators.
• flexible working hours and partial working from home.
• a friendly and open-minded research environment.
• a working situation in a vibrant historic city located at the core of Europe, with outstanding public transportation services, and in close proximity to beautiful mountainous scenery and natural landscapes.
• an attractive salary that is based on ETH Zürich pay-scale, approximately 90,000 Swiss Francs per year (pay-scale available here).