The School of Modern Languages and Cultures is seeking an exceptional leader who combines internationally leading research and innovation with an outstanding record in student education for the position of Chair for 'Language at Leeds', as part of a £23m investment in academic leadership at the University of Leeds (see www.universityofleedschairs.co.uk)
This new appointment, located in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, will have a subject specialism in the broad field of linguistics in order to lead and develop the new Faculty-based strategic Language at Leeds initiative (see below) with the aim of building on substantial existing successes and making Leeds an international leader in language-related research, scholarship and teaching. The structures of this initiative will bring together and enhance language studies in the School (the largest of its kind in the country), in the Faculty (notably English Language) and in the wider University (including Computing and Education). Within the School, this will particularly involve staff in Linguistics & Phonetics, Translation Studies and the Language Centre.
Most importantly, the successful candidate will bring substantial experience in academic leadership and a clear vision for how the potential of the Language at Leeds initiative may be realised. The role will therefore require outstanding leadership and team skills and the ability to encourage and develop interdisciplinary links between colleagues in the different academic areas.
The successful candidate will also have an excellent record in research and student education at all levels, demonstrating both a broad understanding of the fields of linguistics and language study in general, and an outstanding research record in a specialism that will complement and dovetail with current research within Linguistics & Phonetics and/or Translation studies. A strong commitment to interdisciplinarity should also be demonstrated. The Chair is expected to enhance existing research into language in the School and to foster research collaboration within language studies across the University, while also making an innovative contribution to teaching on relevant School-level undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and supporting cross-School scholarship activities.
Deadline for receipt of applications: 15th June 2012.
Language at Leeds
Language at Leeds is a recently articulated initiative that brings together the study of language, both in terms of teaching and research. Within this, the Language at Leeds Research Hub aims to link up existing research groups from the Faculties of Arts, Engineering, Medicine and Health, and Education and provide them with (i) a coherent outward-facing identity with the potential to make Leeds an internationally recognised centre of excellence for the study of language, (ii) centralised research support (within the Faculty of Arts) to better enable the incremental growth of expertise, (iii) the infrastructure necessary to enable more and better inter-disciplinary research.
The Chair will be expected to develop further the Language at Leeds Research Hub within the proposed framework and in conjunction with the team that define it (comprising the research directors from Linguistics & Phonetics, the Centre for Translation Studies, the language group of the School of English, and the Director of the Language, Linguistics & Translation research group within the School of Modern Languages and Cultures).
