WRoCAH AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Translation and Interpreting within the UK Language Services Landscape

Session 2023 - Closing Date 17:00 (UK time) 8 March 2023

Before applying for this studentship, ensure you read the requirements on the WRoCAH website.

Award provides fees and maintenance at UKRI Rates (£17,668 in Session 2022/23) plus £550 enhancement per annum.

This is an AHRC WRoCAH funded Collaborative Doctoral Award between the Centre for Translation Studies, University of Leeds and the Association of Translation Companies.

Translation and interpreting (T&I) are critical to the UK economy and society, but it is often difficult to procure qualified T&I professionals working with languages not taught in UK. This often results in language brokering (interpreting by friends or family) and causes inequalities in accessibility for communities requiring T&I services for social, health or other reasons. This project will collect primary data to map out routes into public service T&I from an equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) perspective, with a view to understanding the backgrounds of and support for translators and interpreters.

The ‘traditional’ route into the T&I professions – school language study, undergraduate language degree, and postgraduate T&I qualification – only holds true for common European languages and major global languages. Non-mainstream languages are neglected despite recent census data showing that the most common community languages spoken in the UK are Polish, Panjabi, Urdu, Gujarati and Arabic.

This poses problems for recruitment of translators and interpreters, and touches on the debate surrounding the professionalisation of T&I for languages not conventionally taught in the UK.

Given the lack of literature in this field, there is scope for a unique approach to this topic. Questions could include:

• What are the personal, professional, and academic backgrounds of those working in public service T&I?
• What provisions currently exist to support linguists from community backgrounds to become qualified translators and/or interpreters?
• How do such translators and/or interpreters feel about the work that they do and the support and training that they have received to carry out their work?

Data can be collected by various means from a wide range of stakeholders. Much of this work can be conducted remotely, but in-person interviews and focus groups are possible.

The Association of Translation Companies (ATC), is a professional trade association and the leading voice for language service companies in the UK. Your findings will feed directly into the ATC’s public sector strategy work, and enable its stakeholders to make the right choices, and drive public sector T&I. This will involve sharing of findings through the ATC’s communications channels online, with the potential to influence future language policies. During the course of the studentship, you will engage in a three-month project directly with the ATC, mapping out the UK landscape for the procurement and provision of interpreting services for the public sector and organising and hosting a stakeholder event.

For further project information contact Dr Callum Walker

Information about how to apply contact the Postgraduate Admissions team

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