Ethics in Practice: Engaging Professional Translators and Interpreters, by Joanna Drugan, UEA
| Dates: | 1 October 2015 |
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| Times: | 14:00 - 15:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
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| Who is it for: | Current University students, General public, University staff |
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| Speaker: | Joanna Drugan |
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Part of the CTIS Research Seminar Series. All welcome, no registration necessary.
Abstract: The translation and interpreting professions are unregulated in most of the world, with no official requirements relating to qualifications, training, experience or continuing professional development (Pym et al., 2012:3). Translators and interpreters nonetheless perform crucial and challenging roles in sensitive settings, such as healthcare, diplomacy and policing. Other professionals who work in such settings typically receive formal training in ethics, subscribe to publicly available Codes of Practice or Codes of Ethics, are provided with support when faced with ethical challenges in their work, and are required to follow regular refresher training. Translators and interpreters are unlikely to have access to this sort of ethical infrastructure.
In this presentation, I argue that translators and interpreters need to reflect on ethical aspects of their practice, for reasons related to both professionalism and social responsibility. I further propose that specialists who work through translators and interpreters benefit from targeted training in the additional ethical challenges involved when communicating across languages, including sign languages. Recent initiatives to provide such training are outlined to show how practitioners from different professional backgrounds (translation and interpreting, healthcare, criminal justice and social work) can communicate and work more effectively with one another, and with service users.
Speaker
Joanna Drugan
Role: Senior Lecturer in Applied Translation Studies
Organisation: University of East Anglia
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
A113
Samuel Alexander Building
Manchester
