PhD Position (Forensic Speech Science). CURLEW
We are seeking highly motivated Postgraduate research students to join the team of CURLEW (Census of Urban and Rural Language in England and Wales). CURLEW is a four-year project (from August 2026) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Applications for 2026/27 are open until Friday 20 February 2026, 11.59pm GMT
Overview:
As the PhD Candidate in Forensic Speech Science, you will be based in York under the supervision of Prof. Paul Foulkes. You will play a crucial role in investigating the current state of English accents, focusing on forensic applications of the corpus data, investigating population statistics and speaker-specific features. This position offers the opportunity to work with high-quality audio data using state-of-the-art automated analysis tools.
The York team on the CURLEW project will consist of the Principal Investigator Paul Foulkes, this PhD student position, a social media manager and a number of student assistants.
Key Responsibilities:
Your primary focus will be researching forensic applications of population statistics and speaker-specific features, while contributing to the project's data collection efforts.
Research and analysis:
Dissertation: Complete a cumulative PhD thesis consisting of 3-4 peer-reviewed articles focusing on forensic applications of the CURLEW corpus.
Sociophonetic Investigation: Analyze how segmental features and/or prosodic features vary regionally and socially.
Automated Analysis: Utilize and refine automated techniques for acoustic analysis, such as, for example, Fast Track for formants and AutoVOT for voice onset time.
Dissemination: Present your findings at international conferences (e.g., NWAV, ICPhS, IAFPA) and publish in leading journals.
Fieldwork & Team Collaboration:
Data Collection: Participate actively in the data collection phase, supervising participants remotely via Zoom as they use the project app.
Collaboration: Work closely with a large interdisciplinary team, including postdocs and PhDs based in Bern, Oxford, and York.
Training: Benefit from training in large-scale data processing and computational methods alongside the project team.
PhD Position (Forensic Speech Science). CURLEW contact details
Prof. Paul Foulkes
paul.foulkes@york.ac.uk
Eligibility
Open to students from PhD in Linguistics only.
Essential Criteria:
Master's Degree: A completed MA/MSc in Forensic Speech Science, Linguistics, English Language, Phonetics, or a closely related field.
Sociophonetic Expertise: Strong background in phonetics and phonology, with a keen interest in language variation and change.
Analytical Skills: Proficiency in acoustic analysis software (e.g., Praat) and statistical analysis (e.g., R) – or willingness to acquire these skills early on in the project.
Communication skills: Excellent communication skills, formal and informal, including the ability to collect informal spoken data from non-standard dialect speakers, write clearly and coherently, present research proposals and results, and represent the research group at meetings.
Team Player: Ability to work collaboratively within a large, international research group.
English Proficiency: Native or near-native proficiency in English (oral and written).
Desired Criteria:
Computational Skills: Familiarity with scripting (Python), forced alignment, or automated speech processing tools.
English Dialects: Knowledge of the regional accents and dialects of England and Wales.
How to apply
Application deadline: Friday 20 February 2026, 11.59pm GMT
The post is open to UK and international applicants. International students would be expected to fund the difference between the UK and international fee rate.
To apply for this position, please apply for a PhD in Linguistics by 12.00 (GMT), 13.00 (CET) on 20th February 2026. You should include:
• A covering letter explaining, with concrete examples, how you meet the criteria for the position.
• An outline proposal (2-4 pages, excluding references) of a plausible PhD topic that meets the topical criteria for this position and draws on analyses of the CURLEW data.
• An up-to-date academic CV.
• Transcripts of degrees already taken.
• Details of two academic referees.
On the application portal choose the option 2026 September, full-time. Specify "Paul Foulkes [CURLEW]" as the Potential supervisor or research group.
To ask for further information, contact Prof Foulkes at paul.foulkes@york.ac.uk
Terms and conditions
Applications will follow the university admission process and data policy.