Is This Thing On? An Interpreter History Reboot to See Ourselves in Media and Technology
Workshop Description:
This presentation uniquely documents milestones in the history of interpreting through the development of technology and media tools and outlets. We will see examples of interpreting shown via print, audio and visual broadcast, in both analog and digital formats; some data outside the U.S. are also included.
Finding our footing in the physicality and connectedness of the past, we will question our current positionality as producers and products in the techonomics of interpreting, and whether our field is humanizing machine-based processing while mechanizing us.
Anne is the sole researcher working in this space, and has spent decades immersed in archival methods, supplemented with research into personal histories, to foreground hidden and forgotten deaf and hearing interpreters, and uncover new stories. Participants are guaranteed never-before-seen information that will enrich, delight, renew and reframe how they see themselves in the story of interpreters.
Workshop Objectives:
As a result of attending this workshop, participants will be able to:
1) Identify milestones in using, and being used, through technology and media. Note how the time horizon for what is “historical” is both accelerating and compressing.
2) Apply acritical eye to question the trade-offs of encroaching digital boundaries, which offer increasingly parasocial contact within a broadening client base.
3) Self-examine posture toward the growing permanence of being “seen” as interpreting work navigates public performance, professionalism, perception.
4) Rate and reflect upon the effectiveness of onscreen portrayals of working interpreters. Does it open a channel to feeling seen or make you reach for the remote?
Presenter Bio:
Dr. Anne Leahy, has been a private practice ASL–English interpreter/translator, mentor, and speaker since 1989, and currently serves on the RID Interpreting in Religious Spaces Task Force. Her historical research seeks to understand contemporary issues in the field by tracing the legal and social pedigrees of the signed language interpreting role in both the US and UK. She holds a PhD in Translation Studies from the University of Birmingham (UK), and has also registered as a novice British Sign Language interpreter. If you are a student, interpredemic or educator looking for historical sources, please be in touch!