Undergaduate Education
Diplôme de Traducteur pout les langues Anglais, Français et Italien (1978-1982) Ecole de Traduction et d'Interprétation - University of Geneva, Switzerland. Main subjects: Translation techniques, International Law, Economics, International Organizations. Research paper on: Multilateral and Bilateral Aid to Developing Countries.
University Degree in Political Science (1983-1987), University of Catania. Main subjects: Economics, History, International Trade,International Relations. Thesis on Integrated Agricultural Development: "The Saemaul Undong -An Integrated Rural Development Plan in South Korea".
Post-graduate Education
Doctorate in "Languages, Cultures and Intercultural Communication - University of Bologna- Doctoral Thesis on "The roles of the interpreter in medical encounters: a case study".
Member of A.I.A. (Italian Association of English Studies)
Member of I.T.I. (Institute of Translation and Interpreting - UK) from 1993 and assessor from 2020
Member of IoL (Institute of Linguists - UK) from 1993
Diploma in Translation Examiner -Institute of Linguists from 1993 to 2003
Member of the Italian Association of Applied Linguistics from 2004
Member of AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters) from 2009
Employment record
In the academic years from 1995/96 to 2005/2006: part-time trainer of simultaneous and consecutive interpreting from English into Italian, as part of the Degree Course in Interpreting, at the Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori di Forlì - University of Bologna.
Since October 2006: tenured researcher at the Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori di Forlì (from October 2012 DIT, Department of Interpreting and Translation)- University of Bologna and junior lecturer in simultaneous and consecutive interpreting between English and Italian for the Master's Degree Course in Conference Interpreting.
Since November 2020 Associate Professor at the Department of Interpretation and Translation, University of Bologna, teaching simultaneous, consecutive, multimedia, dialogue and distance interpreting between English and Italian in the MA programme and helathcare and medical interpreting in the BA programme.
Institutional assignments
Head of the Permanent Interpreting Lab at the Department of Interpreting and Translation.
Coordinator of curricular internships for students on the Master's Degree Course in Conference Interpreting.
From 2009 to present: represantative of the University of Bologna at AIM Inter-University Centre, which deals with interdisciplinary research on spoken communication, especially in institutional settings and intercultural contexts and promotes research, scientific debate, dissemination and training activities. http://www.aim.unimore.it/site/home.html
From 2009 to date: representative of the Department of Interpreting and Translation (Bologna University) in the UNITI consortium (University Network of Interpreter Training Institutes), a European network for cooperation and exchange in the field of interpreting research and education, whose members are 6 international university institutes that train conference interpreters. The consortium was set up by: Charles University - Prague, Fachhochschule- Cologne, Heriot-Watt University - Edimburgh, Institut de Management et de Communication Interculturels - Paris, Lessius University College - Antwerp, Università degli Studi di Bologna- Advanced School of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators (now Department of Interpreting and Translation at Forlì Campus).
Since 2022: member of the Governing Board, the Research and Innovation Committee and the Quality Assurance and Membership Committee of the EMCI Consortium (European Master in Conference Interpreting) https://www.emcinterpreting.org/emci/
Research interests
My research interests lie within Interpreting Studies, a research area that only became established after World War II and has only recently become autonomous from Translation Studies. Precisely because it is a very young field of research, Interpreting Studies draw from established disciplines such as linguistics, sociology and cognitive sciences. It is therefore a field of investigation that is interdisciplinary by nature. My research activity has focused on interpreting between Italian and English in different contexts - from conferences to the medical consultations, from television to the legal settings - and for different users: adults and children/young people. My research pojects have always been based on real data collected through audio or video recordings of communicative interactions/events mediated by interpreters or using interviews, questionnaires and focus groups.
In a more strictly linguistic perspective, I have dealt with the use and translation of pronominal forms in English and Italian in dialogue interpreting as well as the problems represented by the transposition of proper names (of people and places ) and culture-bound expressions in television interpreting. Adopting an interactional perspective and the methodology of conversation analysis, I highlighted the interpreter's autonomous discursive contributions in the interaction in which s/he is called upon to translate and on his/her translation selection in medical encounters and police interrogations. Drawing on sociology (in particular Goffman), I investigated the aspects inherent to the definition and perception of the role and figure of the interpreter both by the other professionals with whom they collaborate and by the interpreters themselves, using on-line questionnaires and carrying out a quantitative analysis of the data collected. With the purpose of giving voice to a "vulnerable" social group and with a socio-linguistic approach, I conducted semi-structured interviews with children and young people concerning their experience of communicating through an interpreter in order to understand their needs, strictly linguistic and communicative in general, with the aim of creating and optimising training tools for professionals working with non-native minors in legal, judicial and administrative proceedings , with a special focus on accompanied and unaccompanied foreign minors in the process of identification, reception and request for international protection once they arrive in thier destination country. In line with recent developments in communication technologies, I also dealt with interpretation via telephone and videoconferencing and studied the characteristics that distinguish it from face-to-face interpreting, highlighting problematic elements and identifying possible solutions. Finally, still in the field of technological innovation, I participated in the development and validation of a man/woman-machine interaction tool based on artificial intelligence and aimed at assisting the interpreter in dealing with some problem-triggers in simultaneous interpreting, among which proper names and figures, with the aim of improving the accuracy and completeness of the interpreting performance.
Cooperation with scientific journals
Member of the Advisory Board of The Interpreter’s Newsletter
https://www.openstarts.units.it/cris/journals/journals00005/journalsboard.html
Member of the Editorial Board of inTRAlinea
https://www.intralinea.org/editorial_info
International and National Research Projects
From September 2022 to September 2023, member of the inter-university research group for the project "The role of the mediator in interviews of English-speaking asylum seekers in Italy: ethics and training". Funding for the project was approved on 22/06/2022, by UNINT in Rome. The members of the research group that will carry out the project are Fabrizio Gallai and Annalisa Sandrelli from UNINT in Rome, Amalia Amato from the University of Bologna, and Claudio Bendazzoli from the University of Turin.
- From January 2021 to December 2021: member of the SmarTerp project research team for the development and validation, by means of data collection and statistical analysis, of an interactive ma-woman/machine tool based on artificial intelligence and aimed at solving some problems concerning simultaneous interpretation for Italian-English and Italian-Spanish language pairs.
- From November 2018 to April 2021: coordinator on behalf of the Department of Translation and Interpreting (DIT) of the European research project CHILLS (Children in Legal Language Settings), funded by the DG Justice and Consumers of the European Union under agreement JUST-AG-2017/JUST-JACC-AG-2017 - 801695, aimed at creating online resources, via an Internet platform, for consultation and knowledge exchange between professionals working with minors who are particularly vulnerable or at risk because of trauma and/or disability or because they are victims of crime.
- From September 2016 to August 2018: coordinator on behalf of the Department of Translation and Interpreting (DIT) of the European research project Co-Minor-IN/QUEST II (Cooperation in Interpreter Mediated Questionings of Minors), funded by the European Union's DG Justice and Consumers under agreement JUST/2015/JTRA/AG/EJTR/ 867, continuation of the previous project Co-Minor-IN/QUEST, focused on the development of tools for the inter-professional training of professionals working with children and young people involved in legal proceedings.
- From September 2015 to August 2018: Assistant Investigator in the Erasmus+ SHIFT (Shaping Interpreters of the Future and of Today) project (www.shiftinorality.eu), funded under "Key Action 2: Strategic Partnership in Higher Education", lead by Bologna University, Department of Interpreting and Translation and focusing on monolingual and multilingual interperter-mediated communication in remote mode, in particular over the phone and in videoconferencing.
- From January 2013 to December 2015: coordinator on behalf of the Department of Interpreting and Translation, University of Bologna, of the European project Co-Minor-IN/QUEST (Cooperation in Interpreter Mediated Questionings of Minors), funded by the European Union's DG Justice and Consumers under agreement JUST/2011/JPEN/AG/2961, focusing on interpretation during preliminary criminal investigations involving vulnerable subjects, especially minors.
- From April 2011 to October 2012: coordinator on behalf of the Department of Interpreting and Translation, University of Bologna, (at that time SITLEC Department) of the European research project IMPLI (Improving Police and Legal Interpreting), funded by the European Union's DG Justice and Consumers under the Criminal Justice programme JLS/2010/JPEN/AAG, focusing on interpretation in preliminary criminal investigations.
Lectures and presentations
- Convener of the seminar "English as a contact language for minority and vulnerable groups", at the AIA30 Conference - Experiment and Innovation: Branching Forwards and Backwards, Catania, 15-17 September 2022
- Seminar on "Interpreting for children and young people in humanitarian contexts" held at the University of Bologna as part of the UKR-IT Emergency Interpreting Course: Basics, 23 April 2022
- Lecture in the series "Approaching the profession"., title "Becoming an entrepreneur of yourself", Master's Degree Programmes in Specialised Translation and Interpreting, University of Bologna, Department of Translation and Interpreting, Forlì, 9 February 2022
- Lecture on "Interpreting on the phone: interpreter's participation in healthcare and medical emergency service calls" during the panel Interactional dynamics in remote dialogue interpreting, 29 June 2021, held at the IPRA conference, 17th International Pragmatics Conference, 27 June - 2 July 2021 Winterthur, Switzerland
- Lecture on "Interpreting for children and young people" - 9 December 2020 IULM - Milan (remote)
- Invited speaker at the panel on "Interpreting with vulnerable groups, emotional reflexivity and self-care, within the National Workshop on Humanitarian Interpreting: Practices, Challenges and Training Needs in Working with Asylum Seekers and Refugees, 25 November 2020 (remote) organised by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in collaboration with the Department of Interpreting and Translation of the University of Bologna
- Seminar (3 hours) "Communication techniques in interactions mediated by an interpreter:
Essential aspects and criticalities of mediated communication, in particular when one of the participants is a minor" as part of the ICARE training project for ASL Roma 1, for the "Training course no. 4 - Specialisation training courses in the health sector reserved for linguistic and cultural mediators
- Invited speaker "Special characteristics of interpreter-mediated hearings with children: the perspective of the interpreter" and "Children's needs in legal language settings - Research findings: Italy" during the ChiLLS Final Conference, 19 and 20 October 2020
- Participation as invited speaker at the ROUND TABLE ON THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE PROFESSION OF INTERPRETERS AND TRANSLATORS organised by the Department of Interpreting and Translation Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna (Forlì Campus) and held online on Zoom platform, 9 July 2020
- 4-hour seminar "Language Mediation" on 13/04/2019 as part of the Advanced Training Course in "Social and Legal Practices in the Reception and Integration of Migrants" run by the University of Bologna for the academic year 2018/2019
- Presentation "Pursuing the Best Interest of the Child in Interpreter-mediated Legal Interviews with Minors", delivered at the international conference "Language Rights: Issues and Good Practices". Warsaw, Poland, 21-22 September 2018
- Presentation "Co-Minor-IN/QUEST I Leaflet and Book", delivered at the international conference "Co-Minor-IN/QUEST II Final Workshop". KU LEUVEN University, Antwerp, Belgium, 20 June 2018
- Lecturer at the Summer School of Remote Interpreting, "Shift in Orality", Erasmus+, STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION, Project no. 2015-1-IT02-KA203-0014786, Learning/Teaching/Training activity C2: invited teachers at higher education, Intensive Study Programmes, Forlì, 11-16 Giugno 2018, Campus di Forlì, DIT LAB
- Lecture on "Interpreting for Children in Legal Settings: Co-Minor/IN-QUEST 1 and 2 EU-funded Projects". University of Leeds, UK, 2 May 2018
- Lecture in the series "Approaching the profession", title "Becoming entrepreneurs of yourself", Master's Degree Programmes in Specialized Translation and Interpreting, University of Bologna, Department of Translation and Interpreting, Forlì, 24 April 2018
- Seminar "Interpreting and language and cultural mediation in legal settings (police interviews and questionings) ", held as part of the Advanced Training Course "Legal and social practices in the Reception and Integration of Migrants", University of Bologna, 20 April 2018
- Two seminars "Interpreters working for minors in legal settings" and "Interpreting for minors: results of the European research project Co-Minor 2", held as part of the Continuing Education Course "Language Assistance in Legal Settings". Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bologna, 17 February 2018
- Presentation "Giving Voice to the Powerless: Children in Interpreter-Mediated Interviews", delivered at the 2nd International Larim Conference: Power and Ideology in Interpreter-Mediated Contexts. International University of Rome, UNINT, 23-24 November 2017
- Presentation "Interpreting service calls: potential problems and possible solutions", delivered at "TechLING'17 - 2nd International Conference Language, Linguistics and Technology: New trends in language teaching, interpreting and translation", Teaching Hub, Forlì, 10-11 November 2017
- Organisation of the conference "The voice of interpreters for Justice: from Nuremberg to the International Criminal Court", 9 November 2017. Teaching Hub, Forlì.
- Organisation of the exhibition on the history of interpretation "A trial - 4 voices. The interpreters of the Nuremberg trial". Teaching Hub, Forlì 6-13 November 2017
- Lecture "Interpreting for the police: it takes more than translating". University of Leeds, UK, 22 March 2017
- Presentation "Interpreting in service calls in the health sector: the SHIFT project", delivered at the "Distance Interpreting Workshop: Training, Research, Enterprise". Teaching Hub, Forlì, 18 October 2016
- Presentation "Interpreters working with children in Italy: profle, roles and expectations", given at the international conference "Critical Link 8 - Future-proofing Interpreting and Translating". Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK, 29 June - 1 July 2016
- Lecture in the series "Approaching the profession", "Becoming Entrepreneurs of Yourself", Master's Degree Programmes in Specialised Translation and Interpreting. Forlì, 8 March 2016
- Seminar on interpreting for judicial police investigations, held as part of the Continuing Education Course "Linguistic Assistance for the Judiciary". Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literature of the University of Bologna, 26 September 2015
- Organisation of the Study Day "Research on Legal Interpreting" (funded by the Polo di Forlì) and presentation "Italian data of Co-minor questionnaire: briefing and debriefing". Forlì, 24 April 2015
- Organisation and presentation "(De)briefing and support", delivered at the final conference of the European project CO-Minor-IN/QUEST (JUST/2011/JPEN/AG/2961) "Children and justice: overcoming language barriers". KU LEUVEN University, Antwerp Campus, Antwerp, Belgium, 13-14 November 2014
- Presentation "Interpretation and Justice: legal and judicial interpretation in police questioning and pre-trial investigations", delivered at the Workshop 'Telephone Interpretation in Public Services'. Department of Translation and Interpreting, Via Oberdan 2, Forlì, 18 November 2012
- Presentation "Police interpreting and criminal proceedings", delivered at the international conference closing the research project funded by the European Commission "ImPLI". ISIT, Paris, 7 September 2012
- Presentation "Cultural mediators in Italy: a new breed of linguists", delivered at the international conference "Critical Link 6 - 6th International Conference on Interpreting in the Community -Interpreting in a changing landscape". Birmingham (UK), Aston University, 26-30 July 2010
- Presentation on “The role ofinterpreters and mediators in patient/doctor institutional comunication: an analysis of discourse contributions" at the 7th Congress of Italian Association of Applied Linguistics (AITLA). Milan, 22-23 February 2007.
- Lecture on “The role of the interpreter in medical encounters” at the 5th Congress of the Italian Association of Applied Linguistics (AITLA) Bari University, 17-18 February 2005.
- Presentation on “The interpreter in multi-party medical encounters” delivered during the international conference “Critical Link 4. 4th International Conference on Interpreting in the Community – Professionalization”. Stockholm University, Sweden, 20-23 May 2004.
- Seminar on “Consecutive Interpreting in the Classroom: from artifice to simulation" for the Italian Association of Translators and Interpreters (AITI). Florence, 15 February 2003.
- Presentation on “Interpreting Legal Discourse on TV: Clinton’s Deposition with the Grand Jury” at the International Conference: “Interpreting in the 21st Century. Challenges and Opportunities. 1st Forlì Conference on Interpreting Studies”. Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori, Forlì. 9-11 November 2002
- Seminar on “Note-taking in consecutive interpreting: theory and practice" for the Italian Association of Translators and Interpreters (AITI). Florence, 16 February 2002.
Interpreting experience
From 1987 free-lance interpreter - both consecutive and simultaneous - in Italian, French, English and Spanish at international conferences, congresses and seminars on various topics including: banking and finance, defence, economics, education and training, environment, industrial relations, international law, IT, TLC, politics transportation.
Main national and international organisations I worked for:
PONTIFICAL ACADEMY, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, COUNCIL OF EUROPE, BIT, ECOSOC, EUROJUST, ICE (Italian Trade Centre), IFAD, INTERPOL, EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, ITALIAN MINITRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ITALIAN MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, BRITISH MINISTRY OF DEFENCE, OECD, UNICEF.
SINTESI
Diplôme de Traducteur pour les langues Anglais, Français et Italien (1978-1982) Ecole de Traduction et d'Interprétation - University of Geneva, Switzerland - Main subjects: translation techniques, international law, economics, international organisations. - Dissertation on "Multilateral and bilateral aid to developing countries". Degree in Political Science (1983-1987) University of Catania. - Main subjects: international economics, international relations, international law, history. Dissertation on: 'Saemaul Undong - an integrated rural development plan in South Korea'. PhD in: Languages, Cultures and Intercultural Communication. University of Bologna. Doctoral thesis on: "The roles of the interpreter in medical consultations: a case study". From A.A. 1995/96 to A.A. 2005/2006: part-time interpreter trainer teaching different courses on interpreting between English and Italian, as part of the Master's Degree Programme in Conference Interpreting at the Department of Interpreting and Translation of Bologna University. From 2006 to 2020 Research Fellow and Junior Lecturer, from 2020 to date Associate Professor in the same department. Research interests: conference interpreting in institutional and media settings, dialogue interpreting in medical, legal/judicial and migration contexts, interpreteder education, interpreting technologies. Participation in 6 European research projects with competitive calls.
