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Professor Christina Schäffner

Head of Translation Studies

Professor of Translation Studies


 

Room: NW 901
Phone: 0121-204 3790
E-mail: c.schaeffner@aston.ac.uk

Professor Christina Schaffner

I studied English and Russian at Leipzig Univeristy, Germany. After completion of my PhD, I worked briefly at Leipzig University, teaching English language, translation and interpreting. From 1982 till 1992, I was the head of a research team at the Saxon Academy of Arts and Sciences at Leipzig, which conducted research in the fields of political vocabulary, text linguistics and translation studies. Since 1992, I have been at Aston University where I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in translation studies, interpreting, text analysis and have supervised PhD students in these areas. For several years, I have been a member of the international CETRA staff (annual summer school for PhD students in translation studies), and was CETRA chair professor in 2011. I am responsible for one of the four sub-projects of the Marie Curie initial training network TIME (Translation Research Training: an integrated and intersectoral model for Europe) established with support from the European Commission. I was the chair of the organising committee of the 6th International Critical Link conference, held at Aston University from 26-30 July 2010.

I am the Aston representative on the National Network for Translation, and a member of the steering committee of OPTIMALE, an Erasmus academic network Optimising Professional Translator Training in a Multilingual Europe. From 2007-2009, a was a member of the  EMT expert group set up by the Directorate General for Translation (DGT) of the European Commission whose main task was to make specific proposals with a view to implementing a European Master's in Translation (EMT) throughout the European Union.

Qualifications

PhD in Philology (Leipzig University, Germany)
MA in Foreign Language Teaching for Adults, English and Russian (Leipzig University)

Teaching (current modules)

  • Theoretical Concepts of Translation Studies

  • Text Analysis for Translation

  • The Translation Profession

  • Research Methods

  • Interpreting (English-German)

  • Practical Translation (English-German)

  • Supervision on PhD and MA dissertations.

Research Interests

  • Translation Studies

  • Text Linguistics

  • Critical discourse analysis/Political discourse analysis

  • Metaphor research (esp. in political texts and from a translational perspective)

  • Translation didactics

Responsibilities

Membership of Professional Organisations

  • European Society for Translation Studies (EST Secretary General from 198 to 2004)
  • International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS)
  • Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguistics (CIoL)
  • International Pragmatics Association (IprA)
  • Gesellschaft fur Angewande Liguistik (GAL, Germany)
  • Arbeitsgemeinschaft "sprache in der Politik" e.V. (Germany)
  • CRITICS International (International Network of Centers of Critical Discourse Research)
  • Women in German Studies (WIGS)
  • International Association Researching and Applying Metaphor (RaAM)  

Editorial and advisory roles

Member of the editorial board and/or advisory board of several journals, including Target, The Translator, Discourse and Society, Perspectives, The Journal of Specialised Translation, ESP Across Cultures, and mTm.

Selected Recent Publications


Books 

SCHÄFFNER, C and BASSNETT, S. (eds) (2010). Political Discourse, Media and Translation. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

SCHÄFFNER, C. (ed) 2004. Translation research and Interpreting research: Traditions, gaps and synergies. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon.

CHILTON, P and SCHÄFFNER, C (eds) 2002. Politics as Text and Talk. Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse. (Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 4) Benjamins. Amsterdam and Philadelphia.

SCHÄFFNER, C (ed) 2002. The role of discourse analysis for translation and translator training. Multilingual Matters, Clevedon.

SCHÄFFNER, C with WIESEMANN, U. 2001. Annotated texts for Translation: Functionalist approaches illustrated (English-German). Multilingual Matters, Clevedon.

SCHÄFFNER, C and ADAB, B (eds) 2000. Developing Translation Competence. Benjamins. Amsterdam and Philadelphia.

SCHÄFFNER, C (ed) 1999. Translation and Norms. Multilingual Matters. Clevedon.

Journal Articles
SCHÄFFNER, C. Does translation hinder integration? In: Forum 7(1)/2009, pp. 99-122. (Special issue ‘Ideology and Cross-Cultural Encounters – Research and Methodology in Translation and Interpreting’).

SCHÄFFNER, C. 2008. ‘The Prime Minister said ...’: Voices in translated political texts. In: SYNAPS Fagspråk, Kommunikasjon, Kulturkunnskap. 2008, 22, 3-25.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2005. Bringing a German voice to English-speaking readers: Spiegel International. In: Language and Intercultural Communication. 2005, 5(2), 154-167. (Special issue on Global News Translation)

SCHÄFFNER, C 2004. Political Discourse Analysis from the Point of View of Translation Studies. Journal of Language and Politics, 3(1), 117-150,

SCHÄFFNER, C 2004. Metaphor and Translation: Some implications of a cognitive approach. Journal of Pragmatics, 36, 1253-1269,

SCHÄFFNER, C 2003. Translation and Intercultural Communication: Similarities and Differences. Studies in Communication Sciences / Studi di scienze della comunicazione, 3(2), 79-107.

SCHÄFFNER, C (Guest editor) Language work and the European Union. Special issue of Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 2001, 9(4).

SCHÄFFNER, C and ADAB, B (guest editors) Hybrid texts and translation. Special issue of Across Languages and Cultures. A multidisciplinary journal for translation and interpreting studies. Vol. 2, no. 2, 2001,

Chapters in edited volumes
CHILTON, P and SCHÄFFNER, C. 2011. Discourse and Politics. In: VAN DIJK, T (ed) Discourse Studies: A multidisciplinary introduction. Sage, London, pp. 303-330.

SCHÄFFNER, C (2010) Politische Interviews im Blick der Translationswissenschaft. In: Translationskultur revisited. Festschrift für Erich Prunc, Nadja Grbic, Gernot Hebenstreit, Gisella Vorderobermeier, Michaela Wolf (eds). Tübingen: Stauffenburg, pp.319-339.

SCHÄFFNER, C (2010) Norms of translation. In: Handbook of Translation Studies.  Volume 1. Yves Gambier, Luc van Doorslaer (eds), Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 235-244.

SCHÄFFNER, C (2010) Crosscultural Translation and conflicting ideologies. In: Translation and Cultural Identity. Selected Essays on Translation and Cross-Cultural Communication, Muñoz-Calvo, Micaela and Carmen Buesa-Gómez (eds) Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 107-127.

SCHÄFFNER, C (2010) Political communication: Mediated by Translation. In: Perspectives in Politics and Discourse, Okulska, Urszula and Piotr Cap (eds.) [DAPSAC 36]. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. pp.255-278.

SCHÄFFNER, C. 2009. Translation and political communication. In: Neslihan Kansu-Yetkiner and Derya Duman (eds) Researches on Translation Studies, Linguistics and language Teaching. Pp. 3-16. Izmir: Izmir University of Economics Publications.

SCHÄFFNER, C. Political Discourse and Translation. In:  Li Wei and Vivian Cook (eds) Contemporary Applied Linguistics. Language for the Real World (vol. 2), pp. 142-163.  London and New York: Continuum, 2009.

SCHÄFFNER, C. 2009. Doctoral training programmes: research skills for the discipline or career management skills? In: Hansen, Gyde, Andrew Chesterman and Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast (eds) Efforts and Models in Interpreting and Translation Research. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 109–126.

SCHÄFFNER, C. 2008. Behindert Übersetzung die Integration?In:Vorderobermeier, Gisella & Wolf, Michaela (eds) "'Meine Sprache grenzt mich ab....'. Transkulturalität und kulturelle Übersetzung im Kontext von Migration". Wien and Berlin: LIT Verlag, pp.  169-188.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2008. Functionalist Approaches to Translation. In: Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha (eds) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edition). London: Routledge, pp. 115-122.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2007. Politics and Translation. In: Kuhiwczak, Piotr and Littau, Karin (eds) A Companion to Translation Studies. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 134-147.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2007. Übersetzen. In: Knapp, Karlfried et al. (eds.) Angewandte Linguistik. Ein Lehrbuch (2. Auflage). Tübingen and Basel: A. Francke, 433-451.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2006. Benchmarking for Translator Training. In: Postigo Pinazo, E (ed.) Investigación en tradducción e interpretación. Una mirada al presente. Malaga: Universidad de Málaga, 105-127.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2005. A roof is an umbrella: Metaphor, culture and translation. In: Sidiropoulou, M (ed.) Identity and Difference: Translation Shaping Culture. Bern: Peter Lang,
49-78.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2005. "It's just a metaphor..." - From visions to reality in political discourse on the European Union. In: THIELE, Wolfgang, SCHWEND, Joachim, TODENHAGEN, Christian (eds) Political Discourse: Different Media – Different Intentions – New Reflections. Tübingen, Stauffenburg, 213-229.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2004. Developing professional translation competence without a notion of translation. In: MALMKJAER, K. (ed.) Translation in Undergraduate Degree Programmes. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, Benjamins (Benjamins Translation Library 59), 113-125.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2003. Framing the past. An analysis of John Major’s Address. In ENSINK, T and SAUER, C (eds) The Art of Commemoration. (Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 7). Benjamins. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 116-140.

SCHÄFFNER, C 2003. Third Ways and New Centres - Ideological unity or difference? In CALZADA PÉREZ, MARIA (ed) Apropos of Ideology. Translation Studies on Ideology - Ideologies in Translation Studies. St Jerome, Manchester, .23-41.