(with apologies to Edwin Starr) Conference season is in full swing. As I write this, ITI have recently had their annual conference, BAAL will soon be having a conference in Edinburgh and I am preparing to co-chair a panel at EST conference in August. It’s that time of year when people look out their business […]
Category: Research
To PhD or not to PhD
For the majority of language professionals, the thought of giving three or more years of their life over to sitting in an office, reading papers, writing notes and preparing papers sounds like a punishment. Who in their right mind would leave behind (or at least reduce) their professional workload in favour of spending hours on […]
Court Interpreting: The Quest for Data
By now, no one even seems surprised at another case of poor court interpreting in England and Wales. After three government enquiries, numerous newspaper articles and judgment after judgment, it is actually becoming hard for the flaws in the new system to gain any headlines at all. After all, it is only so often that […]
BAAL Conference – Update
We are delighted to announce that the call for papers for the BAAL conference has been extended to the 22nd March.
Men, Music and Masculinity
Staff Seminar, 6 February 2013 led by Dr Chris Tinker, Reader in French, Studies in European & International Cultures & Societies (SEICS) Research Group ‘Midlife Pop Masculinities in the Here and Now’ In a recent staff seminar Chris Tinker – whose research focuses on popular music and media in France and Britain – examined recent […]
IPCITI Comes to Heriot-Watt
Last week we announced that the BAAL conference is shortly coming to Heriot-Watt. This week we are pleased to announce that the International Postgraduate Conference in Translation and Interpreting (IPCITI) will be taking place here on 14-16th November too. The IPCITI Conference is the result of a long-term collaboration between Dublin City University, Heriot-Watt University, […]
Opening New Lines of Communication in Applied Linguistics
BAAL 2013 will take place at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland’s inspiring and dynamic capital. This year’s conference is organised by the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies at Heriot-Watt University. 5-7 September 2013. Plenary Speakers Kathryn Woolard, University of California, San Diego Jannis Androutsopoulos, Universität Hamburg Svenja Adolphs, University of Nottingham Conference theme Over […]
Being There
What’s the difference between an interpreter and a translator? Most people reading this blog probably already know the answer. Interpreters work with signed and/or spoken language; translators work with written language. Still, for the most part, there is an even more obvious difference. Despite the growth of remote and video interpreting, it is still typically […]
The Importance of Messy Interpreting
It’s a sad fact that interpreting is still not seen as a particularly difficult and useful skill by many members of the public. After all, it’s just like having a walking dictionary, isn’t it? Interpreters hear words in one language and find their equivalents in another. Surely a computer could do the job. Professionals might […]
Responsible Interpreting pt. 2
A few days ago, we posted the first part of my interview with Robyn Dean, sign language interpreter and researcher. This week, in the second part, we talk about whether research is any use to practicing professionals and why even busy professionals can help shape the future of their profession.