New Insights into Interpreting Studies.

Introduction

This volume, published in a series Studies in Language, Culture and Society, is a fruit of work of eminent researchers in the field of Interpreting Studies who kindly accepted our invitation to contribute with a chapter to a volume to celebrate the 70^th birthday of Professor Małgorzata Tryuk.

Prof. dr hab. Małgorzata Tryuk is a worldwide known researcher in Interpreting Studies and author of publications on, among other topics, conference interpreting, community interpreting, interpreting history and interpreter training. She received Officier des Palmes académiques (2013) and 200^th anniversary of the University of Warsaw (2016) awards. She represents the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, in international organizations, such as CIUTI (Conférence Internationale Permanente d’Instituts Universitaires de Traducteurs et Interprètes) and EMT (European Masters in Translation) bringing together leading scholars and trainers in the field of Translation and Interpreting Studies. She is on the Board of AUPELF Réseau Lexicologie Traduction Terminologie, “Plejada” – Academic Association of Polish Romanists and is a member of the European Society for Translation Studies (EST). Her professional experience includes membership of the University of Warsaw Senate (1982–1985), the Faculty Council (1982–1984 and from 2004 on) and the Institute Council (1998–2002 and from 2004 on). She was Deputy Dean for Students’ Affairs (2005–2008), Head of Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies in Translation and Interpreting (1999–2005) and Local Coordinator of European Masters in Conference Interpreting EMCI (2005–2020). The areas of her academic interest encompass not only Translation and Interpreting Studies, but also specialist languages, terminology and terminography. As far as her editorial activities are concerned, in the years 1978–1987 she was Secretary of “Kwartalnik Filologiczny”, and has been a member of the editorial board of “Revue internationale d’Etudes en Langues modernes appliquées” since 2008 and “Lingua Legis”. Moreover, she is a reviewer in national and international journals: Między Oryginałem a Przekładem, Przekładaniec, Rocznik Przekładoznawczy, Across Languages and Cultures, Interpreters’ Newsletter, RIELMA, and CLINA: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Communication. She is an experienced university teacher and a supervisor of dozens of MA theses.

The editors of the present volume owe Professor Małgorzata Tryuk special gratitude for supervising our doctoral dissertations. For us, not only has she been, and continues to be, mentor and role model in academic career, but colleague and collaborator who listens and supports in ideas and concerns we confide in her. True to the Polish denomination for supervisor (‘promotor’), she has lost no opportunity to promote our professional achievements.

As editors of this volume, we are endlessly happy to present fourteen contributions written by eighteen researchers representing various sub-fields of Interpreting Studies. Although the subtitle of this book suggests a division into technology, society and access as three big topics covered by today’s scholarly interests, we finally decided to abandon such a sharp setting of boundaries. This is due mainly to the fact that Interpreting Studies is nowadays a field that combines different disciplines and methodologies.

Therefore, Franz Pöchhacker in an opening chapter titled History, community, accessibility: Interpreting studies extended takes us on a journey back to the early 1990s and presents not only the chronological evolution of thought on interpreting, but also draws a picture of how Interpreting Studies has borrowed ideas from other fields of research.

New approaches to the research in the history of interpreting are presented in the following two chapters. Michaela Wolf in her text Interpreting under threat: Nazi concentration camps as “non-places” uses Marc Augé’s concept of non-place to explore ambiguous, violent and aggressive communication patterns in concentration camps.

Sergey Tyulenev in his contribution entitled Interpreting and translation in military intelligence interrogations: A social-systemic perspective employs Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory to analyse a rarely studied aspect of history of translation and interpreting, namely the dynamics of interrelations in the military intelligence interrogation team.

Elisabet Tiselius invites to considering Ethics of interpreting professions: One size fits all? where she presents various perspectives on the professional ethics of interpreters, discusses the scope of ethical freedom in interpreting, as well as reflects on the similarities and differences in the ethics of different groups of interpreters.

The next chapter, prepared by Agnieszka Biernacka and titled Still ‘the Cinderella of interpretation’? Court interpreting in Poland revisited follows in the footsteps of Professor Małgorzata Tryuk’s research and reexamines the profession of court interpreters as both a separate type and the one having many features in common with community-based interpreting.

Aleksandra Kalata-Zawłocka presents her pioneer research in Preparation for interpreting in TV settings: Strategies employed by signed language interpreters across Europe conducted in the form of an online survey, the results of which are multidimensional as they are as important for the academia as for the interpreter community and deaf viewers.

In the next two chapters, the authors present outcomes of their research projects.

Heidi Salaets and Katalin Balogh in their text titled Access to justice for vulnerable groups in society: Minors in Belgium as a case not only present their research into the topic at hand, but also describe practical steps the authors have taken to make the project results sustainable and durable.

In a similar vein, Carmen Valero-Garcés in her text Exodus, refugees, and inclusion of the Afghan population in Spain. The project ‘Get To Know To Keep In Mind’ emphasises the need to integrate refugees and asylum seekers in hosting communities by recognizing their right to communicate in their languages (languages of lesser diffusion) as a valuable way to overcome language and cultural barriers.

A block of six contributions on pedagogical issues of interpreter training begins with a text Interpreter training: A never-ending process by Alessandra Riccardi who shows how a potential of a collective experience of interpreters as a profession embodied in memoirs of witnesses of the interpreting history can affect the interpreter training process.

Danielle D’Hayer contributes with the text When a CoP mindset combined with hybrid pedagogy breaks silos to enhance interprofessional multilingual experiential` learning and an inclusive participation of multiple communities. The case study of mock conferences for conference interpreting education at London Metropolitan University, in which advantages of building and maintaining a community of practice are explored. In this innovative approach students, educators and alumni are regarded as partners in revolutionizing the idea of mock conferences as a collaborative and inclusive effort that empowers learners.

Ivana Čeňková elaborates on Artificial intelligence from the perspective of students and interpreters and the extent to which it is able to change the interpreter training process and the profession itself. The article presents interesting insights from different stakeholders in interpreting (students, trainers) on what will probably exercise a decisive impact on the future of the profession to which Professor Tryuk has devoted most of her academic and professional life.

Anna Jelec, Karol Bartkiewicz, Katarzyna Czarnocka and Joanna Ziobro-Strzępek in their contribution Why not(es)? Automatic analysis of notes for consecutive interpreting training present the results of an empirical study on note-taking with a view to redesigning interpreter training curricula and assessment criteria of consecutive interpreting.

The final two contributions discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching simultaneous interpreting.

In Hybrid and synchronous simultaneous interpreter training: Configurations, constraints, opportunities and perceptions Tomasz Korybski discusses advantages and disadvantages of hybrid mode of delivery of training in simultaneous interpreting and presents his empirical study on this topic.

The last contribution, entitled Teaching simultaneous interpreting during the COVID-19 pandemic: Technology, society, access, by Wojciech Figiel revisits the theme of this volume by providing an autoethnographical account of author’s experiences with remote simultaneous interpreter training during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The author stresses the importance of support from disability activists in testing and adopting technical solutions accessible for all.

The themes of this volume, technological development in interpreting training and practice, access for all to interpreting and interpreter training, and socio-historical research on interpreter training and interpreting as a profession, have been the focus of Professor Małgorzata Tryuk’s research and contributions to interpreting studies. We hope that the present volume will be a truly fitful commemoration of her 70^th anniversary. When writing these words, we also hope for a future, in which everyone who needs it has access to services of highly qualified interpreters, the work of the latter is appreciated and transformative technologies contribute to well-being of both interpreters and their clients. And we are absolutely convinced that Professor Małgorzata Tryuk will continue to play an important role in achieving these ambitious goals.

As editors, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all our authors – outstanding researchers in Interpreting Studies – who collaborated with us on this book with great commitment and understanding of tight deadlines. We thank them for the wonderful, enlightening and thought-provoking contributions based on their exceptional knowledge and expertise.

The EditorsWarsaw, October 2023