PhD research on language use in job interviews.

The research group Multimodality, Interaction and Discourse (part of the Research Unit Linguistics) within the Faculty of Arts at KU Leuven focuses on the study of language and interaction as social and/or conceptual practices, as observed in a variety of interpersonal contexts, including spontaneous interactions in the workplace. The group is currently seeking a new colleague who wishes to pursue a PhD on language use in job interviews.

Project

Language plays a central role in the construction of social identities. This takes place in interaction, among other things through the indexical value of language, categorization, and various verbal and non-verbal means. This identity work takes on a particularly crucial character in gatekeeping contexts, where decisions are made about access to opportunities. Job interviews are a prototypical example of this. In addition, this project also examines onboarding processes, in which new employees graduall...