Who is involved

As a Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Irish Research Council Fellow, I am the principal researcher on the 'Translation as Empowerment' project. I work closely with my academic mentor, Professor Sharon O'Brien (Dublin City University) and with Dr Enida Friel, my mentor in GOAL, official partner in the project. I am based at DCU in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) and am a member of Centre for Translation and Textual Studies (CTTS). As part of my Fellowship, I will spend nine months working with GOAL colleagues in their offices.

My ideas for this research project build on my previous experiences: on my close collaboration with Amnesty International during my doctoral research on the organisation's translation policies and practices, and on my work as a postdoctoral researcher on the UK-based 'The Listening Zones of NGOs' project (led by Prof Hilary Footitt with Dr Angela Crack) which investigated the role of languages and cultural knowledge in international development programmes. You can read about my previous work on the 'Resources' page.

Sharon O’Brien is professor in translation and language technology in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City University. She currently coordinates the H2020 EU-funded RISE project called INTERACT: The International Network in Crisis Translation.

Her research to date has focused on the interaction between translators and technology (including Translation Memory and Machine Translation), cognitive aspects of translation, research methods, including eye tracking and keystroke logging, localisation and content authoring. She is a funded investigator in the cross-institutional research centre ADAPT. She was Director of the Centre for Translation and Textual Studies (https://ctts.ie) for three and a half years (2013-2017). She previously worked as a language technology specialist in the localisation industry.

Enida Friel trained as a medical doctor in Albania. She holds a Master in Public Health, and two Diplomas on Reproductive Health and Tropical Medicine from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She has over 20 years of experience in humanitarian and development contexts including field experience in Sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia and the Balkans with various INGOs and the UN. She lectures in Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, Maynooth University and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine along with supervising master research students.

Her early research was on quality of maternal health services, whereas more recently on evaluation of advocacy, disability inclusiveness, and results-based management in development. Her research has been presented in international conferences and published in peer review journals. Dr Friel currently works at GOAL as Head of Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning. She is also Vice Chair of the Irish Global Health Network- a unique platform that brings together Ireland based researchers, practitioners and policy makers working on global health issues.