Interpreting Studies: Joining the conversation

The gauntlet thrown down when I entered graduate studies to try and earn a phd was the need to find conversations already underway in the academic literature and add my perspective. I’ve written many smallish pieces that have been published by journals and newsletters for sign-language practitioners in the U.S., England, and Germany. My first substantive contribution at the theoretical level came out this summer in the Benjamins Translation Library: The Critical Link 4: Professionalisation of interpreting in the community (see blurb). My article, “Why bother?” Institutionalization, interpreter decisions, and power relations is in Part V: Professional ideology: Food for thought (see abstract).
My submission for the next Critical Link volume presents a theme from the discourse of spoken language interpreters at the European Parliament, and engages a paradigm debate over conceptions of “interpreting”: particularly where we locate meaning. These ideas are a foundational part of the dissertation I hope to write if the European Parliament will let me back for more research. I’m making the paper available for feedback and input. Please, if you read it, would you let me know what you think? The more conversations (input, feedback, critique) I can have with more practitioners and teacher-trainers, the more thoughtfully the project will develop.