Researching Multilingually at the borders of the body, language, law and the state

AHRC “Translating Cultures” Programme

Alison Phipps (University of Glasgow) (PI)

Translating Cultures

Multilingual, 2.0?

Context

‘It is becoming clear that the

very nature of

multilingualism is now

increasingly unmoored –

even from the frameworks

that were applied in the

1990s’

Unpredictability

The languages used to language – to attempt to work through the loss and possibilities, the pain and the hope –are now radically unpredictable.

The unmoorings (loss of one or both anchors) of multilingualism are myriad and occurring at the levels of :

• Self

• Kin

• Community

• Work

• Environment

• Market

• Politics (local / global)

Researching Multilingually

Each of these aspects have

attracted some scholarly

attention in the Translating

Cultures theme.

Each is suffused by myriad

forms of migration and

mobility which come into

conflict with the body,

language, law and the state.

Subjectivity

“so little is said about how each of us comes to

the pen and the computer and the authority to speak

and author texts.”

Ruth Behar Translated Woman

Researching Multilingually

Two overarching aims:

1) to research interpreting, translation and multilingual

practices in challenging contexts, and,

1) while doing so, to document, describe and evaluate

appropriate research methods (traditional and arts based)

and develop theoretical approaches for this type of academic

exploration.

The Body in Pain

Intense pain is also language-destroying: as the content of one’s world disintegrates, so that which would express and project the self is robbed of its source and its subject. Word, self and voice are lost, or nearly lost...[…].

(Scarry: 35 )

Research Context

• Concepts of borders and embodiment, superdiversity,

security/insecurity, raise important practical and ethical

questions as to how research might be conducted.

• These concepts trouble the nature of traditional modern

languages and concepts of translation and culture.

• The contribution to the Translating Cultures is therefore both

theoretical/conceptual and also methodological.

Methods

Focus on Methods: Part of the innovative nature of the project

lies not in using new methods per se, but rather

(i) in comparing across discipline-specific methods,

(ii) interrogating arts and humanities methods where the

body and body politic are under threat, and

(iii) in developing theoretical and methodological insights as

a result.

(iv) Arts based representations

A framework for

researching multilingually

An overarching theme – Develop researcher intentionality of

possibilities and complexities of researching multilingually at all

stages of a research process across wide range of fields.

Relationships - researchers, participants, mediators,

interpreters, translations, team members

Spaces – research (phenomena); researched (context);

researcher (language resources); re/presentation

(reporting/dissemination)

5 Case Studies

1) Global Mental Health: Translating Sexual and Gender

Based Trauma (Scotland/Sierra Leone)

2) Law: Translating vulnerability and silence in the legal

process (UK/Netherlands)

3) State: Working and Researching Multilingually at State and

EU borders (Bulgaria/Romania)

4) Borders: Multilingual Ecologies in American Southwest

borderlands

5) Language Education: Arabic as a Foreign Language for

International Learners (Gaza)

Global Mental Health

Law

EU Borders

US Borderlands

Gaza

Hubs and Impacts

- Academic Hub

-Creative Arts Hub

Multimodal Outputs which create impact and communicate

beyond the theme for a new generation of researchers and

stakeholders who have tools, theories and methods for

researching multilingually across wide range of disciplines.

Public and Third Sector Organisations

….together with international partners.

• A Moment's Peace • BEMIS • Bridges Programmes• Camcorder Guerillas • CARA• Centre for Rural Childhood • Citizens for Sanctuary • COSLA SMP• Glasgow Centre for International Development • Glasgow City Council • Glasgow Housing Association • Haven • Lifelong Learning in Palestine• Human Rights Cluster, Uni South Australia

• Migrant/Ethnic Churches Together in Scotland

• Migrants' Rights Scotland • Migrant Voice• Oxfam Scotland • Pan African Arts Scotland• Positive Action in Housing • Scottish Red Cross• Scottish Detainee Visitors • Scottish Migrants Network • Scottish Refugee Council • Street Level Photoworks• Student Action for Refugees• Unity Centre Glasgow

Challenges

Creative Arts

Some Surprises

Ha Orchestra; Poetry Collection

Musical Drama

Marsden – Aotearoa New Zealand

Refugee Language Education in Lebanon

Scotland’s Future

Poverty Truth Commission

Multimodal Emergent Outputs which create impact and communicate beyond the theme for a new generation of researchers and stakeholders who have tools, theories and methods for researching multilingually across wide range of disciplines.

New theoretical, conceptual and empirical

understandings

• Unique contribution in opening up existing disciplinary

pockets to critical, comparative attention.

• Using arts based methods to open up settled meanings whilst

documenting and analysing commonalities and differences in

concepts, methods, processes and practices across a range of

fields, countries, disciplines and policy areas.

• Creating a context where multilingual realities are not feared

or masked, but engaged across societies, in direct response to

the needs of multiple partners.