Profession, Identity and Status

Translators and Interpreters as an Occupational Group

Research Workshop, under the auspices of the Israel Science Foundation

March 15-19, Tel Aviv University & Bar Ilan University

Questions of occupational identities, self-image and status are at the focus of professors Rakefet Sela-Sheffy and Miriam Shlesinger ongoing research, “Profession, identity and status: translators and interpreters as an occupational group”, with reference to translational professions in Israel as a case in point.

Proceeding from these questions, this research workshop is intended to examine parallel dynamics in other occupations and cultural settings and develop directions for further research in this field, in cooperation with other scholars worldwide. Our purpose is to put these questions on the research agenda of both Translation Studies and the broader scope of Culture Research. In keeping with the Cultural turn in TS and the growing interest in the sociology of translation as a professional field, our focus in this workshop is on the professionals themselves, their habitus and their understanding of their work, with the view to develop the use of qualitative methodology such as interview-based and biographical research. We hope this research workshop will open opportunities for a wider yet more focused forum of scholars in Israel and abroad who pursue these perspectives and methods, and form a working group for further projects, from an international comparative standpoint.

The following issues will be discussed:

• Marginal professions and questions of professionalization

• Occupational identity: role definition and self-image

• The habitus of occupational groups

• Biographical research of professions

• Feminization in translation and other pink-collar occupations

• Occupational identity in the context of immigration and ethnicity

• Stratification in the field of translation as an occupational group

· PROGRAM

· PROGRAM, ABSTRACTS AND BIOGRAPHIES