Heading to IATIS …

I’m looking forward to presenting at the seventh conference of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) in September, 2021. The conference will be conducted in a hybrid format — online world-wide and in-person, in Barcelona. On-site registration will be limited to 100 participants.

As part of a panel run by Franz Poechhacker and Pablo Romero-Fresco, I will present findings from my research on interpreter space and the formation of meaning in interpreted theatre. The panel is titled Interpreting for Access: From Speech to Signs and Text, and is described here:

The aim of this thematic panel is to provide a framework for linking a number of existing and emerging research strands from the perspectives of translation and accessibility studies. All of these efforts are intended to contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which translational practices, increasingly mediated through digital technologies, shape the relationship between individuals and society and its institutions. Broadly speaking, contributions to this panel will address the mutual relationships between audiovisual translation, media interpreting, and accessibility services. All of these processes and their products are closely bound up with new technologies as well as specific groups of people in a novel type of cultural ecology. In addition to such well-established practices as live subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing and TV news interpreting, this panel will feature novel applications of real-time (‘live’) translational skills in conjunction with language processing software. These may include, but are not limited to, speech-to-text interpreting at live events, interlingual live subtitling, interpreting into easy-to-understand language, and live audio description. On the premise that the many new developments in this field are stretching established conceptual boundaries, presenters will reflect on the theoretical implications of new modes of practice when these are construed as forms of translation, interpreting or accessibility services. Such critical inquiry may thus range widely, from conceptual and (inter)disciplinary to practical and pedagogical issues. Other contributions may focus on the methodological implications and requirements of studying such new forms of practice, from questions of design, engineering and usability to human factors in the cognitive and socio-professional domains and to measures of reception, quality and user satisfaction.

For information about the conference:

Danny McDougall

Danny McDougall, PhD, CSC — “Dr. Danny” — owns and manages TerpTheatre. Since 1986, he has interpreted in hundreds of plays, musicals and other performances on stage – most in the shadowed style. He teaches and lectures on the theory and practice of theatre interpreting. Danny is the chair of Sign Language Studies at Madonna University, and holds a PhD in Translation and Interpretation from Heriot-Watt University – where his dissertation explored the relationship between space and meaning during interpreted theatre performances.