Speaker
Jemina NAPIER, Heriot Watt University
Title
Transformations of Sign Language Intercultural Mediation over Time
Abstract
Aligning with several themes of the conference, and drawing on several research project findings, this keynote presentation will walk the audience through various threshold concepts in relation to sign language intercultural mediation, what it means for deaf signers to connect with hearing non-signers through and with interpreters and the implications for future research and education, both for sign language interpreting and translation and the wider translation and interpreting field. In particular, the presentation will focus on connections between sign language intercultural mediation and children, justice, health, gender and technologies. The presentation will chart the transformations that have taken place in evidence-based understanding and provision of sign language intercultural provision through the advent of policies and technologies, and raise questions about the potential for the future.
About the speaker
Professor Jemina Napier has been Chair of Intercultural Communication in the Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies in the School of Social Sciences (SoSS) at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK since 2013, and and has served as Head of Department as well as the Director of the Centre for Translation & Interpreting Studies in Scotland (CTISS), and the Director of Research for SoSS. She is an interpreter researcher, educator and practitioner and has practiced as a sign language interpreter since 1989, accredited to work between English and British Sign Language (BSL), Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and International Sign. After completing an MA in BSL/ English Interpreting at Durham University in the UK, Jemina moved to Australia to undertake her PhD studies in Linguistics at Macquarie University in 1998. She established the first Australian university programme for sign language interpreters (Postgraduate Diploma/ MA in Auslan/ English Interpreting) at Macquarie University in 2002 and was head of the suite of Translation and Interpreting programs from 2007-2012, where she is now an Adjunct Professor. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Deaf Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Jemina is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences UK, Corresponding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, Fellow of the Association of Sign Language Interpreters UK, Honorary Life Member of the Australian Sign Language Interpreters Association (ASLIA) and was an inaugural board member of the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI).
Jemina’s expertise in intercultural communication focuses on sign languages, linguistic access, professional and non-professional mediated communication, interpreting and translation, linguistic and social inclusion. She conducts interdisciplinary linguistic, social and ethnographic explorations of direct and mediated communication in sign languages to inform interpreting studies, applied linguistics, and deaf studies, with a strong focus on access to public services. She has over 150 publications and is the sole author of the books: Sign Language Brokering in Deaf-Hearing Families (2021, Palgrave), Linguistic Coping Strategies in Sign Language Interpreting (2016 2nd Ed., Gallaudet University Press), and co-author of three other books: Research Methods in Interpreting (2013, Bloomsbury) with Sandra Hale, Sign Language Interpreting: Theory & Practice (2018 3rd. Ed., Federation Press) with Rachel McKee & Della Goswell, and Sign Language in Action (2016, Palgrave) with Lorraine Leeson. She has also co-edited 6 books on interpreting research and interpreter education. Jemina is a member of several journal editorial boards as well as a research grant assessor for several national and international funding bodies. Jemina has won several awards for her research work, including: the Police Scotland Chief Constable’s Excellence Award for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for collaborative work on research and training on domestic abuse and deaf women’s access to communication and information 2024 (with Lucy Clark, Stephanie Rose, Sarah Winters and Stephanie Torrance); the Australian Journal of Human Rights Andrea Durbach Award for best article in human rights scholarship 2017 (with Sandra Hale, David Spencer and Mehera San Roque); the 2017 Guardian University Award for Research Social & Community Impact (with other members of the British Sign Language team at Heriot-Watt University); and the Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners Award for best GP research article featured in the Australian Family Physician Journal in 2013 (with Michael Kidd).