DCU lecturer leading international research project on crisis translation

Consider for a moment being in a country when an earthquake hits or severe flooding occurs? Or, what if you were caught in the middle of a political uprising with all access routes in and out of the country closed off?

In these crisis scenarios, information that one can understand is crucial.

However, where can you find this information; who provides it; will it be translated and if so, how and by whom?

Crisis translation, defined as “the translation of written information from one linguistic and cultural system to another in the context of a crisis scenario” is now the subject of a funded research project, from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement.

Dublin City University lecturer Dr Sharon O’Brien of the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies is coordinating the establishment of an interdisciplinary, intersectoral research and innovation network in crisis translation called INTERACT with a specific focus on health-related crisis content.

Dr O’Brien is collaborating with, among others, researchers at University College London, the University of Auckland and Translators without Borders.

The objectives of the project are to contribute to the knowledge, policy, expertise and training that enables timely translation-enabled crisis communication; improve the outcomes for communities by contributing to translation-enabled communication; and enhance collaboration across academia, humanitarian and industrial sectors involved in crisis communication.

The INTERACT project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 734211.

For further details go to https://sites.google.com/view/crisistranslation/home

Read more on the project in this week's Spotlight on Research