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Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting in Non-Governmental Organisations
Edited by Wine Tesseur
[Translation Spaces 7:1] 2018
► pp. 143–161

Interdisciplinary multilingual practices in NGOs

Addressing translation and interpreting at the ‘Human Rights Investigations Lab’ and ‘Translators Without Borders’

ORCID logo | University of California, Los Angeles

Emanating from the recent sociological turn of translation studies scholarship (Wolf 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010), translation and interpreting practices in non-governmental organizations has become a field of research that imperatively requires cross-disciplinary approaches. This paper investigates multilingual initiatives carried out by the Human Rights Investigation Lab (HRIL) and Translators Without Borders (TWB) and their contribution to ensuring language access in crisis scenarios. Based on interviews with delegates from both organizations, and taking into consideration legal and sociological perspectives, it sets out a broad reflection on how translation studies research is evolving in the area of NGOs. It intends to address the caveats that can arise from both conceptual and empirical approaches in the design of future projects, as it explores the notion of discipline-specific knowledge and relevant concepts in translation training and external collaborations.

Keywords: interdisciplinarity, intersectoral collaboration, NGOs, human rights, humanitarian crisis, sociology of translation, legal knowledge
Article outline
  • Interview 1: Dr. Alexa Koenig (University of California, Berkeley)
    • The Human Rights Investigations Lab – University of California, Berkeley (Law School)
    • Exploring interdisciplinary collaborations
    • Wider context: Connecting human rights with languages and translation
  • Interview 2: Dr. Nada Ghandour-Demiri (American University of Beirut)
    • Language & Comprehension barriers in Greece’s Migration Crisis (Translators Without Borders and Save the Children)
    • Interdisciplinary collaboration: Translators Without Borders, NGOs and academia
    • The role of translation and interpreting studies in current crisis scenarios
  • Reflecting on translation and interpreting practices in NGOs: Interdisciplinarity and further collaborations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.00008.mor
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