Translation and Interpreting PhD

Why choose this course
The School of Literature and Languages is home to the Centre for Translation Studies (CTS), a well-established specialist research centre dedicated to teaching, scholarship and research in translation studies. Since our founding in 1982, we’ve established an international reputation for both our research and our innovative taught programmes. Our scholars are actively involved in the national and international translation and interpreting studies scene.

Our research reflects the evolving nature of the discipline, encompassing new technologies, audio description, sociological perspectives on translation and innovative practices in interpreting.

You’ll benefit from excellent facilities, including specialist software to support corpus-based analysis, subtitling, computer-assisted translation and terminography and audio-description. We’re also home to state-of-the-art interpreting facilities with integrated videoconferencing.

You will be part of the interdisciplinary School of Literature and Languages, with research active staff in English Literature, Creative Writing, Film Studies, Translation Studies, Theoretical and Applied Linguistics and Literary and Area Studies.

You’ll join a cosmopolitan, multilingual and multicultural community of students and scholars, and we see our research students as being a core part of the School.

Our translation studies team has been awarded more than £600,000 of external research funding since 2012. We’re part of a number of externally funded doctoral training partnerships, and you might be able to benefit from a studentship from us if you’re suitably qualified.

What you will study
It normally takes three-years of full-time study or six years of part-time study to complete our PhD in Translation and Interpreting. You’ll take a confirmation viva at 12-15 months (or 24-30 months part-time) and then be assessed by a thesis and viva examination.

You’ll be assigned two supervisors, who you’ll meet with monthly to discuss your progress. Your supervisors will guide you through your PhD, and will give you feedback and advice on your work.

As a doctoral student in the School of Literatures and Languages, you’ll receive a structured training programme covering the practical aspects of being a researcher, including grant writing, publishing in journals, and applying for academic jobs.

Research support
The professional development of postgraduate researchers is supported by the Doctoral College, which provides training in essential skills through its Researcher Development Programme of workshops, mentoring and coaching. A dedicated postgraduate Careers and Employability team will help you prepare for a successful career after the completion of your Ph.D.

Research themes

• Translation technologies, i.e. machine-assisted and corpus-based translation
• Interpreting technologies, esp. video-mediated interpreting, distance/remote interpreting
• Translation process research
• Bilingual lexicography
• Audiovisual translation incl. subtitling, audio description, re-speaking and other modalities
• Translation and interpreting as multimodal activities
• Translation and interpreting in the context of migration
• Dialogue interpreting
• Legal and healthcare interpreting
• Sociological approaches to translation
• Humour in translation.