Open Postdoctoral position, faculty mentor Monica Ellwood-Lowe

Important Info

Faculty Sponsor First name:

Monica

Faculty Sponsor Last Name:

Ellwood-Lowe

Other Mentor(s) if Applicable:

Meg Cychosz, Ph.D.; Dan Jurafsky, Ph.D.

Stanford Departments and Centers:

Graduate School of Education

Linguistics

Postdoc Appointment Term:

2 year, with opportunity for renewal

Appointment Start Date:

Flexible, with preference for Summer or Fall 2026

Group or Departmental Website:

https://mellab.stanford.edu/

https://spoglab.stanford.edu/

How to Submit Application Materials:

To apply, please submit the following to the google form by Friday, May 29, 2026 at 5pm Pacific Time.

Cover letter (<1 page)
CV
Copies of two research papers that demonstrate research agenda
Contact information for two letters of recommendation

Does this position pay above the required minimum?:

No. The expected base pay for this position is the Stanford University required minimum for all postdoctoral scholars appointed through the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. The FY27 minimum is $79, 056.

Postdoc in Children's Language and Learning in Everyday Environments

Advisors: Monica Ellwood Lowe, Ph.D., Meg Cychosz, Ph.D., Dan Jurafsky, Ph.D.

We are recruiting a postdoctoral scholar to join a collaborative, interdisciplinary team across Education, Linguistics, and Computer Science. The postdoc will lead a project that uses wearable technology - including eyetracking glasses and daylong audio recorders - to examine children’s experiences in and learning from the school classroom. This project is a research practice partnership with San Francisco Unified School District, and will be co-developed with teachers. We are particularly interested in a postdoc with experience developing pipelines to analyze complex, multimodal (audio and/or vision) data.

The postdoc will be mentored by Monica Ellwood-Lowe (Graduate School of Education), Meg Cychosz (Linguistics), and Dan Jurafsky (Linguistics and Computer Science). They will join supportive and collaborative lab environments and have the opportunity to work with graduate students, staff, and undergraduates.

The postdoc will also have flexibility to contribute to ongoing projects in the MEL Lab and SPOG Lab depending on interests and expertise, as well as develop their own independent lines of research. Projects span diverse populations and settings, including children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Required Qualifications:

Ph.D. in Psychology, Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Education, Speech & Hearing Sciences, or a related field.
Substantial experience with at least one of the following: speech and audio processing, computer vision, eye tracking, or related computational methods.
Interest in children's language, attention, or learning, and enthusiasm for working with naturalistic, child-centered data collected in homes, classrooms, and other everyday environments.
Strong collaborative skills and ability to work effectively in a complex, multidisciplinary environment spanning education, linguistics, and computer science.
Eager to contribute to a vibrant group of faculty, postdocs, and students working at the intersection of speech-language AI and early childhood research.

Preferred Qualifications:

Demonstrated ability to bridge research and practice — developing innovative computational methods while also thinking carefully about how findings can be communicated to and used by practitioners such as teachers and families.
Interest in or experience with deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.

Required Application Materials:

Cover letter (<1 page)
CV
Copies of two research papers that demonstrate research agenda
Contact information for two letters of recommendation