Dr. Irem Ayan

I hold an MA in Conference Interpreting from Institut libre Marie Haps in Brussels, and a PhD in Translation Studies from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Before joining the University of British Columbia, I taught a variety of original courses in translation theory and practice at Binghamton University’s Romance Languages Department and Translation Research and Instruction Program (TRIP).

My research and teaching interests include translation, interpreting, gender studies, as well as the sociology and (auto)ethnography of translation and interpreting. My ethnographic research focuses on interpreters’ dilemma of embodying various speakers while trying to remain neutral. It also builds on the gendered work of conference interpreters, addressing questions such as how clients’ gendered assumptions affect interpreters’ performance. In my book manuscript tentatively entitled The Emotional Labour of Conference Interpreting: Gender, Alienation and Sabotage, I explore how interpreters assume another “I” by performing various forms of emotional labour, and how this holds important consequences for interpreters’ sense of identity, including gender.

I am also a practicing conference interpreter and translator, with almost eleven years of professional experience and training within a number of international organizations such as the United Nations in New York, and the European Union and NATO in Brussels.