MULTILINGUAL ISLAND: SITES OF TRANSLATION AND ENCOUNTER
The project compares approaches to language and migrant/refugee integration in different sites with a view to informing policy and best practice. Working in Galway and Belfast, we
- Observe multilingual practices in sites of everyday encounters between migrants/refugees and local communities (religious sites, sports grounds, community centres, libraries);
- Investigate the role of translation in everyday encounters between migrants/refugees and local communities;
- Explore the creative potential of translation to establish and sustain a dialogue between migrants and the community, and to provide a migrant perspective on the theme of Ireland as a ‘shared island’;
- Compare how Northern and Southern approaches to migrant/refugee integration impact the practice of multilingualism.
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ACTIVITIES
Since February 2023, we have established contact with the local community centres, resource centres, libraries, direct provision centres and religious sites located in the most multicultural and multilingual districts of Galway with a significant component of migrant/refugee population (Westside, Doughiska, Ballybane, and Ballybrit). In both Galway and Belfast, we have partnered with their key figures (project and program coordinators, sports facilitators, coaches, community development workers, librarians, priests and church managers) to get insights into their work and experience in creating and promoting intercultural communication and integration. We continue to gather data in the form of intreviews and observations.
Since early 2023 we have engaged in a series of participatory workshops with members of various migrant communities in Galway, in ‘Telling and Translating Folktales’. These workshops will continue in the City Museum, a public library and primary school (working with the children's parents) until the end of 2023. Through the workshops, we expect to investigate the potential of oral storytelling in translation as a way of promoting the city’s diverse cultures, building links between communities, and helping learners of English as a foreign language increase confidence. We are working on similar workshops to be offered in several public libraries in Belfast in the spring of 2024.
- TEAM
Anne O’Connor is Personal Professor in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and co-director of the Emily Anderson Centre for Translation Research and Practice in the University of Galway. She is the Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator project PIETRA and leads a multilingual and multidisciplinary team studying translation and communication in global Catholicism. She is the author of Translation and Language in Nineteenth-Century Ireland: A European Perspective (2017) and her recent publications include: Media and translation: historical intersections, Routledge Handbook of Translation and Media (2022); Women translators and paratextual authority: The frameworks of religious translation [Parallèles] (2022) ; Translation and Religion: Issues of Materiality, Translation Studies (2021) and the edited collection Tangible translation: Migration and materiality (2022).
Piotr Blumczynski is Professor of Translation and Intercultural Studies, and Director of Centre for Translation and Interpreting at Queen’s University Belfast. His earlier work focused on role of ideology in the translation of sacred texts (Doctine in Translation [2006]). More recently, he has been exploring philosophical aspects of translation, and testing this concept beyond its traditionally linguistic boundaries. He has authored the monographs Ubiquitous Translation (2016) and Experiencing Translationality (2023), and co-edited the volumes Translating Values (2016, with John Gillespie) and The Languages of Covid-19 (2022, with Steven Wilson). He is the Editor-in-chief of the journal Translation Studies.
Iryna Andrusiak joined the Moore Institute in February 2023 as a post-doctoral researcher. She completed her PhD in Germanic languages in Ukraine, and was previously a lecturer at Uzhhorod National University, Ukraine. With a background in linguistics, translation and EFL teaching, Iryna has extensive experience researching the role of language and translation in everyday interactions of migrants and asylum seekers, non-professional translation, ESOL teaching and creative power of translation. She is a certified ESP teacher trainer.
Andrea Ciribuco is a lecturer in Italian at the University of Galway. His interests include translation and migration, migrant literature, and multilingualism. In his research, he has worked in Italy and Ireland with international protection applicants, language teachers, NGOs, and activist groups. In 2022, he was awarded an Irish Research Council Laureate Award for the project “Rural Villages, Migration and Intercultural Communication (VICO). He is one of the co-investigators of MISTE, working mainly on creativity (strand 3). Since 2023, he is a member of the Young Academy of Ireland, where he sits in the executive committee.
Lorna Shaughnessy is an academic, translator and poet. She is co-director of the Emily Anderson Centre for Translation Research and Practice in the University of Galway, and of the research group Crosswinds: Irish and Galician Poetry and Translation. Her practice as a literary translator forms an essential part of her teaching contributions to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the University of Galway’s School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. She has published four collections of poetry in translation from Spain and Mexico, and five poetry collections of her own. https://lornashaughnessy.com/
Emma Soye has an MA in Development Studies and a PhD in Social Work and Social Care. Her PhD involved ethnographic research on a large EU-funded project examining the effectiveness of school-based interventions for refugee wellbeing. Emma has conducted research on refugee wellbeing, social inclusion, and education for non-governmental organisations including UNICEF (with Cambridge University Press), Save the Children UK, Institute of Development Studies, and GIZ. She lectures on migration and sociology at Queen’s University Belfast and is Assistant Editor at the Centre for Global Education. Her book, Peer Relationships at School: New Perspectives on Migration and Diversity, is due to be published by Bristol University Press in early 2024.