Research Fellow: ESRC Project ‘Accent Bias and Domestic Abuse Victimisation (ABDAVic)

The department of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics (LCL) at the University of Southampton has a strong research culture covering a broad range of linguistics disciplines, including but not limited to sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, language acquisition, corpus linguistics, and language education. In addition to our linguistics contingent, LCL is also home to researchers engaging in cultural and area studies linked to the languages taught in the department including French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.

The advertised role is a fixed-term 12-month research-only position supporting the project 'Accent Bias and Domestic Abuse Victimisation (ABDAVic)', funded by an ESRC New Investigator grant and led by principal investigator Dr Matthew Hunt. The ABDAVic project is an experimental sociolinguistics project aimed at uncovering possible linguistic discrimination of domestic abuse victims, with a specific focus on biases against classed and racialised accents.

The project will involve two stages. Stage One will involve conducting matched guise-style experiments with members of the general population, while Stage Two will involve conducting those same experiments with trained domestic abuse support workers. The role is primarily to support design and implementation of these experiments – including creating auditory stimuli – as well as analysis and dissemination of the results. This role can be optionally completed remotely, with the occasional visit to Southampton or travel for conferences.

Responsibilities and requirements:
- Design and implementation of matched guise-style survey experiments
- Creating auditory stimuli for experiments
- Statistical analysis including data visualisation and mixed effect regression using R or Python
- Survey design and implementation, ideally using Qualtrics
- Written contributions to conference abstracts, talks, and journal articles stemming from the project; at least one article will feature the research fellow as lead author

Essential qualifications and skills:
- PhD in experimental social research, sociolinguistics, sociology, psychology, political science, or a related field
- Proficiency in survey design and implementation (ideally Qualtrics)
- Proficiency in R or Python for statistical analysis, including data visualisation and mixed effect regression

Desirable experience:
- Experience working in the areas of language and ethnicity and/or language and social class
- Experience in phonetics
- Proficiency in Praat and Audacity

As a university we aim to create an environment where everyone can thrive and are proactive in fostering a culture of inclusion, respect and equality of opportunity. We believe that we can only truly meet our objectives if we are reflective of society, so we are passionate about creating a working environment in which you are free to bring your whole self to work. With a generous holiday allowance as well as additional university closure days we are committed to supporting our staff and students and open to a flexible working approach.