Supervising & Evaluating Research

Evaluating Research

This PhD thesis explores the complex positioning of consecutive interpreters. Understanding context as a multilevel framework comprising the textual, interactional and institutional level, it focuses on interpreter’s position in state-run knowledge transfer seminars in the framework of Turkey’s EU accession process.

External Examiner (2011),
University of Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain

International Knowledge Transfer in Turkey: The Consecutive Interpreter’s Role in Context; Candidate: Seyda Eraslan Gercek; Supervisor: Pr. Franz Pöchhacker & Dr. Ebru Diriker. Obtention of the European Doctorate.

This MA thesis draws on narrative theory to examine the extent to which volunteer activist interpreters who support the COS-PACC (an NGO dedicated to allievating Colombians’ suffering resulting from human rights abuse) depart from and align themselves with the discourse of the activists for which they interpret.

External Examiner (2010),
University of Manchester, UK

Investigating the Role of Activist Interpreters in the Co-Construction and Communication of Resistant Social and Political Narratives: A Case Study of COSPACC; Candidate: Celia Warin; Supervisor: Dr. Luis Pérez González.

This MA thesis examines the impact of paratextual and textual framing on the representation of Third World Women, taking as a case study the translation of Huda Sha’rawi’s memoirs by Margot Badran. Drawing on narrative theory and framing, it highlights the choices made by the translator in and around the translated text and alerts to the harmful potential of translation in misrepresenting the voice of the author by reinforcing stereotypes instead of championing their dismantlement.

Supervisor (2018-2019), HBKU, Doha, Qatar

Reframing and Renarrating Arab-Muslim Women for the West: The Translation of Huda Sha’rawi’s Memoirs into Harem Years, Doaa Mohaisen; in progress.

This MA thesis explores citizens’ translation practices in the Sudanese Revolution since December 2018. It explores the mediation and mediatization of their stories of the revolutionary movement and how they challenge structures of injustice and oppression. It argues that translation empowers citizens to bring about change, and that, in turn, translation is enlarged to multiple forms of meaning mediation across languages and media.

Supervisor (2019-2020), HBKU, Doha, Qatar

Translating Revolution, Revolutionizing Translation: A Case Study of Sudan Revolutionary Movement, Hanna Abdul Majed; in progress.

This MA thesis analyzes Jokha Al-Harthi’s novel Sayyidat el-Qamar (literally, “Ladies of the moon”), and its English translation by Marylin Booth Celestial Bodies. It focuses on the controversial reception of the translation after it was awarded the MAN Booker International Prize in 2019, nine years after the publication of the Arabic original. It examines how textual and paratextual elements of the translation affect literary work reception.

Supervisor (2019-2020), HBKU, Doha, Qatar

Omani Literature in Translation: the reception of Celestial Bodies (Sayyidat el-Qamar) by Jokha Al-Harthi, Muneera al-Kubaisi; in progress.

This MA thesis is a translation and commentary of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birth-Mark”. It offers an Arabic translation and a recreation of Hawthorne’s feminist allegory, as it links the status of women to that of the translator, by inserting a translator in fabula and by commenting on the intersection between textual intervention and feminist-activist translation theories.

Supervisor (2017-2018), HBKU, Doha, Qatar

Dynamic Engagement with Gender and Culture: Transcreating Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth Mark”, Saida Afef Gardabbou. Graduation May 2018.

This MA thesis proposes to move away from the principle of “what you see is what you say” when audiodescribing a film for the blind and visually-impaired and proposes to enrich audience experience with characterization, focalization and subjectivity markers. At the crossroads between audiovisual translation studies and literary studies, it focuses on the film The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry, by using the novel from which the film is adapted (Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway).

Supervisor (2017-2018), HBKU, Doha, Qatar

Enriching Audio Description of Film by Using the Novel: The Case of The Hours, Zeinab Aya Nabih Elmarsafy. Graduation May 2018.

This MA thesis explores how English medium primary and secondary schools in Qatar Foundation address communication with parents with limited English proficiency. It focuses on communication policies and praxis as well as parents’ perceptions of their inclusion. Drawing on interviews with parents, teachers, principals, it finds that language constitutes a major barrier and in the absence of a translation and interpreting policy, non-English speaking parents are bound to be excluded.

Supervisor (2017-2018), HBKU, Doha, Qatar

Overcoming Linguistic Challenges Between Parents and Schools at Qatar Foundation, Mariem Fekih Zguir. Graduation May 2018.

This MA thesis provides the proof of concept of Interpretarium, an interpreting learning environment developed on Moodle and which makes the most of Learning Management Systems to enhance online critical, reflexive and cooperative learning.

Supervisor (2010-2011), UPF, Barcelona, Spain

Interpretarium: una propuesta de plataforma educativa Moodle para la enseñanza-aprendizaje en línea de la interpretación, Monbet, Julie. Graduation: September 2011.

At the intersection between psycholinguistic and cultural approaches to learning, this MA thesis proposes a model of analysis of students’ “linguistic profile” to adapt pedagogy to multicultural classrooms in Public Service Interpreting learning programs.

Supervisor (2011-2012), UPF, Barcelona, Spain

El perfil lingüístico de los aprendientes en el aula multicultural de interpretación en los servicios públicos: un modelo de análisis, Verdaguer, Carlota. Graduation: September 2012.

This MA thesis explores the politics of simultaneous interpreting at the Spanish Senate for Bask, Catalan, Galician and Valencian languages. The analysis demonstrates that the use and non-use of the service provided has both a territorial and political significance.

Supervisor (2011-2012), UPF, Barcelona, Spain

Usos i desusos del servei d’interpretació simultània al senat espanyol, Quesadas, David. Graduation: September 2012.

This MA thesis assesses the extent to which court interpreting training addresses the desperate need for skilled court interpreters in our multicultural country. It focuses on the case of the training program provided by the University of Alicante.

Supervisor (2010-2011), UPF, Barcelona, Spain

La formación en interpretación judicial en España. Estudio de caso de la Universidad de Alicante, Tarres Vinyes, Inés. Graduation: September 2011.

Cognitive approaches to interpreting: memory management, bilingualism, attention dissociation, mental maps

Memoria a corto y a largo plazo en interpretación simultánea: herramientas de optimización de la memoria de trabajo, Natasha Arroyo de la Cárcel. Estudio sobre la memoria y el efecto Mozart en la interpretación consecutiva, Laura de Lorenzo Alba. El bilingüismo en la interpretación: estudio comparativo entre los tipos de bilingüismo enfocado a la interpretación, Carlota Verdaguer Menéndez-Arango. Automatización de la comprensión del discurso en alemán para la interpretación, Eulàlia Giralt i Paradell La presa de notes en interpretació consecutiva: dels connectors als mapes mentals, Júlia Vila Chiapella.