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Project Research Questions

General Research Question (GRQ): How can translation and interpretation processes and practices at the borders of language, the body, law, and the state be rigorously theorised and researched, and research findings effectively represented and evaluated, in a multilingual manner?

Four Specific Research Questions (SRQs) and Contributions emerge from this GRQ:

(1) Theory: How can researchers develop a rigorous and coherent approach to research on translation and interpretation processes and practices in multilingual settings where the body or body politic is perceived to be in pain, danger or transition, and where language relations are distant and proximate?

(2) Methodology: How can research methodologies and ethical practices for working in multilingual contexts and/or with multilingual people, particularly but not exclusively where vulnerability, power differences and conflict are key issues, be developed, tested and refined?

(3) Representation: What is the role of language and translation at times of considerable pressure and how can this be described and represented when multiple languages, silences, and media are involved?

(4) Evaluation and Knowledge Exchange: How can the challenges and contribution of research in multilingual environments be made more explicit, and be effectively evaluated and exchanged?

Research Questions Specific to the RMTC Hub

(1) How do researchers generate, translate, interpret and write up data (dialogic, mediated, textual, performance) from one language to another?

(2) What ethical issues emerge in the planning and execution of data collection and representation (textual, visual, performance) where multiple languages are present?

(3) What methods and techniques improve processes of researching multilingually?

(4) How does multimodality (e.g. visual methods, ‘storying’, performance) complement and facilitate multilingual researcher praxis?

(5) How can researchers develop clear multilingual researcher practices and yet also be open to emergent research design?

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Diagram of Project Relationships, Syntheses and Processes