Multimodal Language and Diversity Outreach Assistant

The Multimodal Language Department at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands is offering a Multimodal Language and Diversity Outreach Assistant position from 1 June 2024 onwards (precise start date flexible).

The successful candidate will work closely with the Communications Department, the Diversity Team and the Technical Group at the MPI. In general, the aim of this position is to help the Multimodal Language Department with its research with diverse populations and researchers (see below) and help its outreach in terms of workshops, conferences, summer schools and public events. The candidate will help enable Department’s visibility through websites and social media within the MPI as well as in its collaborations outside of the MPI.

 Job description

• Help running internal and external international inclusive and diverse workshops, conferences, training events such as summer schools and open days for public or other researchers.
• Ability to connect with universities, public organizations and MPI officers of different levels.
• Help develop regulations how to work with researchers with diverse needs in the Multimodal Language Department (e.g. sign language interpretation, inclusivity).
• Increase the diversity of our data bases including the diverse populations (see below).
• Preparing multimodal stimuli and multimodal PR videos (embedded with pictures, text, avatars, gestures etc.) with the expertise provided by our in-house Technical Group.

 Tasks in close cooperation with the Communications Team

• Help with (inter)national outreach for the Multimodal Language Department research output for diverse populations (heritage speakers, deaf signers, hearing impaired populations, aging populations, blind populations).
• Write updates on the Multimodal Language Department news page, using diverse media (pictures, stories, videos).
• Maintain and update social media for the Multimodal Language Department in line with the MPI policies, guidelines and workflows.

 Requirements

Essential

Our preferred candidate would meet the following requirements:

• Minimally hold an MA degree in a field such as Linguistics, Communications, Psychology, Media Studies. We will also consider outstanding candidates at the BA level.
• Experience in social and media outreach, PR, research visibility, using technology (or affinity to learn) for outreach (e.g. AI tools).
• Good organizational skills.
• Knowing or willing to learn a sign language.
• Knowledge of inclusive writing, using the institute guidelines.
• Able to update and maintain the website (for collaborative conferences, joint projects, lecture series), audiovisual movie editing, narrative ability.
• Enthusiastic, creative and ability to think out of the box.
• Good English language skills, written as well as spoken.

 Desirable

• Programming skills (HTML, Python, etc.).
• Knowledge of Dutch and (German).

 What we offer you

• The position is available from 1 June 2024, though start date is negotiable.
• Full-time position (39 hours per week), with a term of appointment of 1 year with extension possibility. Half time is also considered.
• The salary is in accordance with the German TVöD (Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst) and will be, depending on the education and experience of the applicant, within the range of EUR 3,619.09 and EUR 5,061.67 gross per month plus a holiday bonus of 8% of the gross salary. This equates to EUR 46,903.41 – EUR 65,599.24 per year, including holiday bonus.
• An allowance of 30 days annual leave and the German as well as the Dutch public holidays.

 Application procedure

The deadline for applications is midnight (CEST) on 1 April 2024. Please submit your application directly on our recruitment portal.

 Applications should include:

1. A cover letter outlining your motivation to apply and detailing how you fit the requirements above.
2. A current CV, listing relevant experience.
3. The names and contact details of two referees. They will be contacted if you are short listed. 

For more information about the Multimodal Language Department, and the role of the Multimodal Language and Diversity Outreach Assistant within the Multimodal Language team, please contact the Scientific Director of the Department: Asli Özyürek (Asli.Ozyurek@mpi.nl). For administrative questions please contact the Department secretary (Brigit.vanLoon@mpi.nl).

The employer

About our institute

The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics is a world-leading research institute devoted to interdisciplinary studies of the science of language and communication, including departments on genetics, psychology, development, neurobiology and multimodality of these fundamental human abilities. We investigate how children and adults acquire their language(s), how speaking and listening happen in real time, how the brain processes language, how the human genome contributes to building a language-ready brain, how multiple modalities (as in speech, gesture and sign) shape language and its use in diverse languages and how language is related to cognition and culture, and shaped by evolution. We are part of the Max Planck Society, an independent non-governmental association of German-funded research institutes dedicated to fundamental research in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. The Max Planck Society is an equal opportunities employer. We recognize the positive value of diversity and inclusion, promote equity and challenge discrimination. We aim to provide a working environment with room for differences, where everyone feels a sense of belonging. Therefore, we welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates. Our institute is situated on the campus of the Radboud University and has close collaborative links with the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour and the Centre for Language Studies at Radboud University. We also work closely with other child development researchers as part of the Baby & Child Research Center. Staff and students at the MPI have access to state-of-the art research and training facilities.

About the Multimodal Language Department

The Multimodal Language Department in particular aims to understand the cognitive and social foundations of the human ability for language and its evolution by focusing on its multimodal and crosslinguistic diversity. The research at the department combines multiple methods including corpus and computational linguistics, psycho- and neuro-linguistics, machine learning, AI and virtual reality, and is concerned with various populations ranging from speakers of signed and spoken languages, young and older subjects from typical and atypical populations. The department provides opportunities for training and research in a range of linguistic, conversational state of the art multimodal language research and analysis (such as VR, AI, motion capture and automatic kinematic and speech recognition), as well as neuropsychological, psychological methods related to multimodal language with support from an excellent team of international and diverse researchers (international, deaf and hearing) in linguistics and psycholinguistics.