19 September: fyi -- tenure track, South Africa
Index of September 2000 | Index of year: 2000 | Full index
Department of Linguistics, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa
The Department of Linguistics seeks to appoint TWO full-time,
tenure-track candidates at the level of Lecturer or Senior Lecturer, one
in each of the following areas:
1. computational / semantics / psycholinguistics;
2. language variation / phonetics / historical linguistics.
The candidates should:
* have completed the PhD degree;
* exhibit evidence of active linguistic research, optimally related to
Africa.
VISION:
The Department of Linguistics at Wits has established itself
internationally through ground-breaking instrumental phonetics work on
Khoisan languages. It has also been a centre for work on the phonology,
morphology and semantics both of Zulu, Venda, and other south-eastern
Bantu languages, and of South African English.
The department is in the process of actively consolidating and extending
its research focus within the Southern African Linguistics community. We
are at present refining a vision which builds on the department's
30-year history of research and teaching in the context of South Africa
— at first a politically and intellectually embattled South
Africa, but since 1994 a country of new and enormous regional,
continental and international academic potential.
The vision being articulated will lead the department into 2001 with one
— possibly more than one — moderately large research
programme in place. This research programme underpins the new teaching
and research focus which has been formulated — under intense
discussion — by the current Linguistics staff (faculty): to
immediately expand the department's role in the training of skilled
linguistics fieldworkers at both undergraduate and graduate levels; to
establish an accessible archive of Southern African linguistic
materials; to make preparations for fieldwork that will ultimately lead
to dialect mapping on a significant scale.
These new directions will continue to require skilled and committed
researchers — comprehensively trained in theoretical linguistics,
but with a sharp eye for the empirical linguistic landscapes of Southern
Africa, both urban and rural.
The Linguistics Department at Wits University is uniquely positioned in
the economic, geographic and indeed linguistic heartland of South
Africa, in the midst of communities speaking ten or more languages. Yet
the university is also within striking distance of monolingual African
speech communities radically different in social and linguistic
composition. Thus, the prospective researchers/teachers in the
department have at hand a wide range of accessible language consultants
and research sites.
Johannesburg is fortunate to be able to offer the comforts of a large,
modern city, while retaining a distinctly African profile within the
wider South African context. The Wits Linguistics Department intends to
actively develop its research and teaching mission in this African
context. We seek, therefore, two highly trained, motivated individuals
who will contribute significantly to the building of a robust South
African Linguistics programme in Johannesburg at the start of the 21st
century.
Duties: teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, research, and
departmental duties.
Salary and Benefits: in accordance with University scales, with
excellent benefits (health insurance, pension, life insurance, annual
bonus (13th check), annual leave, sabbatical, housing and vehicle
subsidies, and so on).
Enquiries: Dr Nhlanhla Thwala (nthwala@hotmail.com); Dr Simon Donnelly
(104simon@muse.wits.ac.za). Interested Linguists are strongly encouraged
to enquire for further information about the posts, and about the
department.
Starting date for both posts: 1 January 2001 (possibly subject to
negotiation).
To apply, candidates should submit
* a letter of interest;
* detailed CV with names, addresses and contact numbers of three
referees;
* certified copies of degrees / diplomas, to:
The Linguistics Search Committee
Department of Linguistics
University of the Witwatersrand
P/Bag 3
Wits 2050
SOUTH AFRICA
Index of September 2000 | Index of year: 2000 | Full index