Dear colleagues
(with apologies for cross-posting and to members outside the UK
whom this does not concern directly)
List subscribers will recall that, earlier in the summer, the AHRB
announced that it intended to ring-fence a number of PhD studentships
(6 per year for three years) in fields where there was a demonstrable
shortage and difficulties in recruiting qualified staff. At the Heads of
German meeting (HoGMEET) in June it was considered that German
linguistics might be such a field, but as it might be rather small to justify
that number of awards, we might consider a joint bid with other
modern languages.
After some negotiation, two statements of intent were submitted in
July with the provisional support of FGLS and CUTG, one from the
Philological Society and one from the Linguistics Association of Great
Britain (LAGB). These statements were broadly in the area of
linguistics in relation to specific languages, but our colleagues in
French linguistics decided at that stage to submit their own separate
bid.
We have now heard from the AHRB that they received 109
'statements of intent to bid', and the bidders were notified that, as only
5 fields would eventually be successful, it was unlikely that there
would be more than one awarded in the general field of linguistics. In
the light of this, the Philological Society and the French linguists have
now agreed to join with LAGB to support a joint bid for a set of ring-
fenced awards in the area of 'Linguistics of Modern Languages'. April
McMahon, as LAGB president, is to be thanked for her good offices
in setting this up, which corresponds very closely to what we, as
germanists, would see as the optimal submission and, going on earlier
correspondence when the statements of intent were being prepared,
has the support of FGLS and CUTG.
April now needs to put the final submission together, as the deadline
of 12 September is very close, but as she is away for a couple of
weeks, Dick Hudson at UCL has kindly agreed to coordinate the
application in advance of her return. I have agreed to act as a channel
for relevant information about German, and would thus be very
grateful if you could notify me of any information you have which
would be relevant for this bid, i.e.:
1) I would like to know of all currently registered PhD students in the
UK doing research in German Departments/Schools of Modern
Languages on linguistics topics. The CUTG website 'Research in
Germanic Studies' has no data later than the academic year
1999/2000 - this can be put in, especially as the comparison with
other fields in German Studies is relevant, but it would be good to
have something more up to date.
2) In the same vein, how many students in your departments have
gained PhD's on topics in German linguistics since January 2000?
3) Can you supply any information about the difficulty of recruiting
academic staff in German linguistics in recent years? Has your
department replaced a linguist by a specialist in another field because
of recruitment problems? Is your department wary of advertising a
post in German(ic) linguistics because you are uncertain of the quantity
or quality of the field? Relevant information from your institution about
difficulties in recruiting linguistics specialists in the Romance or
Slavonic languages would also be helpful. We might hear it from other
sources, but doppelt genäht hält besser!
All information supplied will be treated with due discretion, and no
details of specific institutions will be conveyed to the AHRB with the
submission. It will all be very much worthwhile if we can get a couple
of studentships per year in German linguistics country-wide over the
next three years - by my reckoning this will be more than we have had
for some time.
With best wishes and many thanks
Martin
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Professor Martin Durrell
Department of German
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
MANCHESTER
M13 9PL
Tel.: +44 161 275 3182
Fax.: +44 161 275 3031
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