PhD funding in Forensic Speech Science

Posted on Tuesday 3 February 2026

We are seeking highly motivated doctoral and postdoctoral researchers to join the Census of Urban and Rural Language in England and Wales (CURLEW). CURLEW is a four-year project (from August 2026) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. It is a collaboration between David Britain (Bern), Paul Foulkes (York), Adrian Leemann (Bern) and David Willis (Oxford). Its aim is to conduct a census of urban and rural language in England and Wales, providing a rich snapshot of the English language using contemporary sociolinguistic sampling techniques and studying a broad cross-section of the population. Modelled on the Swiss Dialäktatlas, this project serves as a 21st-century counterpart to the historic Survey of English Dialects from the 1950s. The team will collect, transcribe and analyse data from over 1000 speakers using a custom-developed smartphone app. Data will help us fully understand how socio-economic and demographic changes have steered language change. 

The successful applicants will work either in Bern (1 postdoctoral research position, 1 postdoctoral research and teaching position, 3 PhD positions), York (1 PhD) or Oxford (1 postdoc and 1 PhD).  

Find out more information about CURLEW and how to apply. If you wish to apply for more than one position, you must apply for each separately.  

Deadline for applications is 12.00 (GMT), 13.00 (CET) on 20 February 2026.