LINGUIST List 29.853
Thu Feb 22 2018
Support: Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; General Linguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics: PhD, University of Birmingham
Editor for this issue: Clare Harshey <clarelinguistlist.org>
Date: 19-Feb-2018
From: Alice Corr <a.corr
bham.ac.uk>
Subject: Applied Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Discourse
Analysis; General Linguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics: PhD, University of
Birmingham, UK
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message to a friend Level: PhD
Institution/Organization:
University of Birmingham
Duties: Research
Specialty Areas: Applied
Linguistics; Computational Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; General Linguistics;
Text/Corpus Linguistics
Required Language(s):
Portuguese (por) Description:
Forest Edge Doctoral Scholarships Programme (Leverhulme Trust and University of
Birmingham): interdisciplinary literature/linguistics/digital humanities project.
Within the cultural logic of the capitalist world system, the idea of
economic development usually comes at the expense of forest preservation. Located at
the peripheries of this economic system, the forests found within the the
transnational space of the Portuguese-speaking world, in countries such as Brazil,
Angola and Mozambique, have been historically targeted in this developmental process
whose importance to capitalism is reified by social pacts which are deeply rooted in
the collective cultural unconscious of these societies.
Departing from the
intrinsic role of language and culture in formation, maintenance and change of
social values, this project will study the tree-like linguistic structures within
which ideas of ‘forest’ appear in cultural artefacts of the Portuguese-speaking
world in search for distinctive patterns and their correlations with deforestation
and preservation. Through the compilation and contrastive analysis of data regarding
the position of the many nouns denoting the space of the forest in works of
prose-fiction at selected parts of this transnational area at key points in the
industrial development of these societies, eventual patterns found will increase our
comprehension of the role of fiction in the process of destruction and preservation
of forests.
The project will combine comparative critical methods with
insight from the field of linguistics in order to develop an innovative,
interdisciplinary methodology according to the specialism of the successful
candidate, which will additionally draw from the experience of the supervisory team
and contributions from the project’s external and international partners. Close
textual analysis, informed by structural linguistics, discourse analysis and
ecolinguistics, will be contextualised within colonial and postcolonial histories
and critical approaches, including world-systems theory. Hypotheses formulated on
the basis of the textual analysis will then be tested through distant reading
(Moretti 2013), employing methods from the digital humanities.
Funding
Notes:
Full payment of tuition fees at Research Councils UK fee level (£4,270 in
2018/19), to be paid by the University;
An annual maintenance grant at current
UK Research Councils rates (2018/19 is £14,764), to be paid in monthly installments
to the Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholar by the University.
All
studentships come with a minimum of £3,000 Research Training Support Grant. This can
be increased, if there are justified project costs, up to a maximum of £12,000.
Funding is available for UK or EU students only. The tenure of the award can be
for up to 3.5 years (42 months).
Applications Deadline: 16-Mar-2018
Web Address for Applications:
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/postgraduate/pgr/bifor-phds.aspx
Contact Information:
Dr
Alice Corr
a.corr
bham.ac.uk
Page Updated: 22-Feb-2018