People
Keynote Speakers
Katharina Brizić
Translating into the unspeakable. How students gain audibility through interpreting
In my talk I will introduce two empirical examples of interpreting activities performed by students in multilingual school contexts in Germany. Each of the examples provides a snapshot of non-professional interpreting activities. They are conducted to and from highly stigmatised languages, with their speakers looking back on histories of persecution, and with professional interpreting services continuing to be largely unavailable to date.
The two school contexts, however, bring about quite contrary results: While in the first case all students’ languages are supported as a resource for learning, the stigmatised language is still avoided at all costs by the interpreting student. In the second case the school lacks awareness and support for multilingualism; and yet, the context not only brings about interpreting activities inclusive of the stigmatised language, but also results in high appreciation for the interpreting student.
The aim of my talk is to gain a better understanding for how histories of languages and speakers still reverberate in the presence; how various institutional dichotomies potentially hinder, or enhance, interpreting activities inclusive of non-prestigious languages; and how the audible and valued presence of these languages can entail institutional – or even societal – effects (not only) for the students and teachers in class.
Katharina Brizić is a professor of multilingualism studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Her research interests include language and power, (forced) migration, language biographies, language and trauma, educational inequities, social justice, and multilingual cultures of remembrance. Her quantitative study Multilingual Cities Vienna was the first quantitative home language survey in a central-eastern capital. As part of a multinational consortium she heads the Berlin section of the EU HORIZON project „Strategies to Strengthen European Linguistic Capital in a Globalised World“ (https://multilx.com/project-team/).
Rebecca Tipton
From citizen linguists to…? Why history matters for understanding non-professional translation and interpreting
In this presentation I critically examine the applicability of the label ‘non-professional interpreting and translation’ to situations of interpreting and translation that arose in Britain in the years immediately following the Second World War in state and non-state services. This was a period of acceleration in terms of cultural and language diversity, driven primarily, but not exclusively by postwar reconstruction efforts, and one that demanded a level of planning for language support services that differed substantively to the approach taken in wartime. I explore examples of interpreter and translator recruitment processes, working conditions and reflections - by interpreters and government agents - on their practice. Shining a spotlight on the framing used to describe roles, articulate lived experiences, and monitor practice, I examine the significance of such framing for understanding perceptions of ‘professionalism’ in their historical context.
Rebecca Tipton is a Senior Lecturer in Interpreting and Translation Studies at the University of Manchester at the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies. Her research examines professional and non-professional interpreting in statutory and voluntary sector services from contemporary and historical perspectives. She is the author of The Routledge Guide to Teaching Ethics in Translation and Interpreting Education (2024).
NPIT in Austria - Young researchers and their commitment to society
Round table with
Ines Buchegger + Azar Najafi Marboyeh (University of Graz)
Anna Sourdille (University of Vienna)
Marie Tschurtschenthaler (University of Graz)
Simone Uran + Christina Hochfellner (University of Vienna)
Moderation: Nadja Grbić + Şebnem Bahadır-Berzig
This roundtable convenes four young researchers in Translation and Interpreting Studies based in Austria, each presenting brief insights into their ongoing research projects. The topics span a diverse array of contemporary concerns: from the nonprofessional use of technological tools by migrant women navigating multilingual challenges in their daily lives, to interpreting practices within asylum hearings at the Federal Administrative Court (BVwG); from interpreting for LGBTQIA+ refugees in contexts shaped by activism, solidarity, and societal engagement, to the multilingual communication needs between migrant parents and educators in Austrian schools. The presentations will adopt a lightning talk format, with two researchers delivering their insights collaboratively alongside their co-researchers. All four projects share a pronounced commitment to addressing pressing issues related to migration, minority experiences, and multilingualism within Austrian society, foregrounding a critical research stance. They exemplify a new generation of scholarship, attentive to the cultural, social, political, and economic entanglements that underpin research trajectories in Translation and Interpreting Studies, as well as the broader social sciences and humanities. The discussion will foreground two pivotal dimensions of the participants’ research endeavours: first, the search for an inclusive research ethos—particularly by integrating both professional and nonprofessional interpreting practices and agents into academic inquiry; and second, the societal embeddedness of research, emphasizing the tangible contributions these projects (could) make to Austrian society.
| Organizing Committee |
|---|
| Şebnem Bahadır-Berzig & Nadja Grbić Ines Buchegger Gernot Hebenstreit Barbara Hinterplattner Margit Jandrisits Pekka Kujamäki Azar Najafi Marboyeh Manuela Niederl Raquel Pacheco Aguilar Marie Tschurtschenthaler |
| Scientific Committee | |
|---|---|
| Michaela Albl-Mikasa (Zürich) Philipp Angermeyer (York) Rachele Antonini (Bologna) Letizia Cirillo (Siena) Antoon Cox (Antwerpen) Georgios Floros (Nikosia) Peter Flynn (Antwerpen / Bloemfontain) Laura Gavioli (Modena) Deborah Giustini (Doha / Leuven) Agnes Grond (Graz) Ting Guo (Liverpool) Jim Hlavac (Melbourne) Sari Hokkanen (Tampere) | Mira Kadrić-Scheiber (Wien) Nike Kocijančič Pokorn (Ljubljana) Christina Korak (Graz) Clara López Rodríguez (Granada) Esther Monzó Nebot (Castelló de la Plana) Jemina Napier (Edinburgh) Sonja Pöllabauer (Wien) Regina Rogl (Wien) Jonathan Ross (Istanbul) Vanessa Steinkogler (Graz) Şebnem Susam-Saraeva (Edinburgh) Marija Todorova (Hong Kong) Clara Chuan Yu (Hong Kong) |