Post-doc of interest

Job description : Institut Jean-Nicod (EHESS/ENS/CNRS, Paris) is seeking to recruit a post-doctoral researcher for 12 months as part of the ANR research project « Cognitive Origins of Vagueness », conducted by Paul Égré. The position is to start September 2009 or possibly later. The applicant’s PhD should have been defended and filed by the starting date. The net salary will be of 2040 euros/month. French social security and retirement benefits will apply.

The post-doc’s primary responsibility will be to conduct research on vagueness, and the candidate should be motivated to pursue new directions of investigation in this domain, whether theoretical or
empirical. Questions of interest for the project concern the incidence of vagueness in language, in perception and in decision (representative issues include, among other topics and
non-limitatively, the link between vagueness and language learning, the articulation between perceptual categories and linguistic categories, the role of decision in the assignment of boundaries for
concepts, the importance of contextual factors in vagueness resolution).

The candidate should have a PhD in one of these areas: philosophy, psychology, formal semantics, cognitive science, preferably on issues connected to vagueness or categorization. The selected candidate will participate in regular seminars on the topic of vagueness and will also take part in the organization of workshops and scientific events. The candidate will have the possibility to do experimental work and will be given adequate supervision to that effect if appropriate (in partnership with the LSCP and Department of Cognitive Studies at Ecole Normale Supérieure).

Candidates are invited to submit an application (in English) including a curriculum vitae, a letter of motivation with a brief statement of interests, a writing sample, and two letters of recommendation, by May 13, 2009. The application, as well as individual queries, should be sent directly to Paul Egré : paulegre@gmail.com. 

Institut Jean-Nicod (https://www.institutnicod.org) is a member of the Department of Cognitive Studies at École Normale Supérieure (DEC-ENS), which also includes dynamic groups in psychology and cognitive science (such as the LSCP, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et de Psycholinguistique, and the LPP, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, with both of which collaborations are taking place).