Annika Tjuka

Happy International Day of Women in Science! #WomenInScience #11February

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📣 We are looking for a Machine Learning Expert! #jobad

Join the NCCR's team of data scientists, affiliated with the University of Zurich's Technology Platform LiRI. Help us advance our understanding of language using machine learning solutions 🖥️💬

👉 Apply here: jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie...

🎉 Starting the new year in Oxford!
The next three months will be filled with research, collaboration, and lots of tea.
Grateful for this opportunity and excited to gain inspiration for new ideas 💡
#ResearchLife #Oxford

AI slop published on your watch: very bad look for HSSComms and Springer/Nature  Dear editors, I have failed to locate contact information for most of the academic editors for Humanities and Social Sciences Communications; I trust that you will forward this message to them. I want to note that AI slop is being published on your watch in the journal you edit. This paper, out last week (Al-Jarrah 2026), is full of inaccurate claims and includes countless hallucinated references. Even a cursory look at the bibliography shows that at least 10 and probably many more references are bullshit pure and simple; the simplest explanation is that they are confabulated by generative AI, which sheds doubt on the quality of the manuscript as a whole and on the review and editorial processes at your journal. It is a great lapse of editorial judgement to let this kind of obvious drivel pass and I am warning my colleagues at MPI and Radboud to avoid your journal until clear and unambiguous action is taken. You may also want to take note that many people are finding out about this and the online discussion of this paper and of the journal's failing standards is something I hope that Springer Nature cares about. In my opinion the paper does not pass even the most minimal quality assurance checks and is fully against the COPE guidelines on publication ethics. You may want to hold the author accountable for this; I think the only reasonable course is retraction. But the scholarly community also holds the journal accountable. By letting AI slop through, your journal is polluting the information ecology of scientific publishing. Amidst a rising tide of synthetic text, scholarly publishing, with its tradition of human oversight and strong peer revidew, should be one of the last stalwarts to defend the integrity of our research. I look forward to your response and to find out what decisive action you are taking.

Re: the AI slop paper shared by @thomaspellard.bsky.social and @lameensouag.bsky.social, I wrote to the editors — will update when I get a reply, and will be following closely what they do.

Key point is that we should hold the *journal* accountable for this mess

I have a few predictions...

1/n

COMPARATIVE MUSICOLOGY: Evolution, Universals, and the Science of the World's Music By Patrick E. Savage (to published by Oxford University Press in Feb 2026)

Just submitted corrected proofs for my first book!
Publication (open access) is scheduled for late Feb 2026 (but the preprint is already available if you don't want to wait: osf.io/preprints/ps...)

Hi #lingsky! I'll be on sabbatical during the summer of 2026 (March 1 to July 20).

I won't travel by plane, so my radius is confined to Europe.

If you'd like to hear me speak about Oceanic languages, modal semantics, language documentation, word units (or see other publications), drop me a line!

🥳Life Update!

I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be starting as assistant professor for Natural Language Processing @unileipzig.bsky.social in April! I’m deeply grateful to everyone who supported me on this journey.

I will be recruiting PhD students with @scadsai.bsky.social, stay tuned for details!

Postdoctoral position in Indo-European Studies at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen The Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), invites applications for a postdoctoral position in In

candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

We are hiring a doctoral candidate to work in our project that will create a diachronic corpus of Northern Mansi. It is a 65% position (E13 TV-L) for 2 years 9 months starting in spring 2026. Please spread the word! www.finnougristik.uni-muenchen.de/forschung/fo...

I enjoyed the talks at the Conference on Computational Semantics (IWCS) in Düsseldorf. And I received great feedback on our poster presenting version 4 of CLICS!

Article preview: preview.aclanthology.org/iwcs-25-inge...

I got bored with the tired old tree visualisations you see everywhere and asked an AI to make me an exciting one.

Here is the Uto-Aztecan language phylogeny visualised in what it calls "space jellyfish" mode.

#phylogenetics #spacejellyfish

I can highly recommend participating!

🚨 Call for Speakers! 🚨
We’re looking for women, non-binary and LGBTQIA scientists to join us at @berlinscienceweek.bsky.social 2025 ✨

Together with LGBTQ+ STEM Berlin, we’re hosting two amazing events.

Want to take the stage? Apply here 👇🏼

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I redesigned my personal website using the Academia Jekyll theme for GitHub Pages! Check out the new look here: annikatjuka.github.io

Just finished reading Laura's book PROTO! 📚 It has its rightful place in the "Science as Adventure" section of my virtual bookshelf. A must-have for your summer reading list and perfect for anyone who loves language and history. ☀️📖 #ScienceAsAdventure #SummerReading

annikatjuka-bookshelf.github.io

In June, I had the opportunity to present my research on body colexifications at TWO @berlin-soapbox.bsky.social events 📣

Sharing my research findings with so many people was such an exciting experience!

Thrilled to share that I was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal 🏅 in recognition of my doctoral research on language diversity!

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way!

www.eva.mpg.de/press/news/a...

Annika Tjuka receives the Otto Hahn Medal Each year, the Max Planck Society recognises young researchers for their exceptional scientific achievements during their doctoral studies. The Otto Hahn Medal, which comes with a prize of €7,500, aim...

Language scientist @annikatjuka.bsky.social from @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social has been awarded the Max Planck Society's prestigious Otto Hahn Medal for young researchers for outstanding scientific achievements during her PhD. Congratulations, Annika! 🥳🏅🥳 @maxplanck.de www.eva.mpg.de/press/news/a...

Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in an event by @berlin-soapbox.bsky.social @neurocure.bsky.social
I presented my work on linguistic diversity to pupils and answered their curious questions about language 🗣️💡

Big thanks to the organisers and the school for making it happen!

Am 20. Juni ist es soweit: Das @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social lädt zur Langen Nacht der Wissenschaften ein! 😊 Ab 18 Uhr erwarten Euch spannende Vorträge & eine bunte Vielfalt an Mitmachstationen rund um #Menschheitsgeschichte 🧬🧪 & #Primatenevolution. 🐒 Unser Programm: www.eva.mpg.de/de/veranstal...

A group picture of the volunteers, speakers and team members of the Soapbox Science event.

And just like that, our Soapbox Science Summer Event 2025 has come to a close!

It was a fantastic day filled with inspiring knowledge and plenty of fun.

A huge thank you to our incredible speakers for sharing your passion for science and your valuable insights.

Anatomy of Language: A Journey from Head to Toe

🧠👣 Is there a universal way to name body parts? Join Annika Tjuka @annikatjuka.bsky.social and travel through over 100 languages to discover how words reveal the quirks of our minds and cultures!

#SoapboxScienceBerlin #WomeninScience #scicomm

The best part? The event is free, and everyone is welcome! ✨

See you on Sunday!

Check out our full programme here 👀👇🏼

berlinsoapboxscience.wordpress.com/2025/05/30/s...

#WomeninSTEM
#WomeninScience
#SoapboxScience
#scicomm

This is an invitation to the Soapbox Science Berlin event. The invitation features a former speaker presenting her research to a crowd at Holzmarkt

Are you in Berlin and have no plans this Sunday, June 15? I have the perfect solution for you! Join us at Holzmarkt from 3 to 7pm for a fantastic atmosphere full of science and knowledge, where 12 wonderful speakers will share their research in a relaxed and engaging way.

I thoroughly enjoyed giving my first keynote speech at the Emerging Topics in Typology (ETT) conference last week! It was a great event with many curious attendees. You can find my slides here: annikatjuka-talks.github.io

Language

Thanks to Evan Kidd, @mcxfrank.bsky.social & @asifamajid.bsky.social (Eds) for organizing the awesome *Open* Encyc. of Cog. Sci. and entrusting me with/ the honor of penning the entry on "Language" (in < 3500 words, so do see other entries for much, MUCH more!)
oecs.mit.edu/pub/ho9e9c80...

Join us on 15 June for Soapbox Science Berlin at Holzmarkt and spend a sunny afternoon full of science.

📅 June 15, 2025 · 3 – 7 pm
🏖️ #Holzmarkt · Berlin

🔗 Event info & speaker line-up:
berlinsoapboxscience.wordpress.com/2025/05/30/s...

Photo credit: Soapbox Science Berlin
#SoapboxScienceBerlin

Picture of Dr. Annika working on her computer

Today, we're thrilled to announce two of our incredible speakers for the #SoapboxScience Berlin 2025 event.

First up is Dr Annika Tjuka ✨
@annikatjuka.bsky.social

We recently found out that there were technical issues with our email system, and some messages, esp. applications, were lost.

If you applied for membership in the Association for Diversity in Linguistics but haven't heard back from us, please get in touch - we'd love to welcome you properly!

Postdoctoral Researcher in psychology/cognitive science with focus on social learning and cultural evolution Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research? The Mechanisms of Social Behavior lab at the Karolinska Institutet (PI: Björn Lindström) in Stockholm, Sweden is seeking a highly qualified

Postdoctoral Researcher in psychology/cognitive science with focus on social learning and cultural evolution ki.varbi.com/en/what:job/...