. // Stereotyped language related to gender, race and ethnicity in digital dictionaries and thesauri

.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the 21st century, stereotypical language is still widespread, accumulated in dictionaries, reinforcing stereotypes in easy online access. The PhD thesis aims therefore to:
1) analyse the representation of gender, race and ethnicity in digital (corpus-based) mono-/multilingual dictionaries and user interfaces (e.g. word thesaurus) to uncover fairness harms and discrimination against diverse demographic groups in lexical entries in terms of definitions, “typical” examples, collocations and synonyms;
2) raise users' and developers' Critical Language Awareness of stereotypical representations arising, among others, from biased internal datasets, e.g. digital corpora mainly relying on newspaper texts (collocations such as woman+raped/abused; Syrian+criminal/terrorist/arrested);
3) disclose outdated role models that are perpetuated in new technologies;
4) establish a set of measures to confront biases and stereotypical representations in digital resources aimed at civil society, e.g., by optimising underlying datasets with associated partners.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Début de la thèse : 01/11/2026
WEB : https://www.multilawa.eu/

Programmes de l'Union Européenne de financement de la recherche (ERC, ERASMUS)

Université de Lorraine

78 SLTC - SOCIETES, LANGAGES, TEMPS, CONNAISSANCES

.
Profil et compétences recherchées - Profile and skills required The Doctoral Candidate is expected to – have the potential to conduct research of excellent quality , as demonstrated by initial academic work such as the master's thesis, and – if applicable – presentations at conferences, awareness-raising activities or publications. – be interested in working in a multilingual, interdisciplinary and international research environment. – have excellent communication skills in German and English (at least B2). – be willing to undertake international research secondments and travels. See details: https://www.multilawa.eu/recruitment-for-applying/general-information/