University Responses to Crisis Translation

Crisis translation is characterised by challenging and straining situations, the fate of individual persons and communication across a wide range of languages. Despite their education, university students of translation (studies) are often not prepared for these situations. Therefore, students at the University of Vienna in the Translation master’s programme were introduced to the topic of crisis translation, including practical research experience in the field. The university course was accompanied by pre-test and post-test interviews to investigate the starting point, i.e. the knowledge and expectations students had at the beginning of the course and how these changed after they had gained an insight into the practice of crisis translation. The results show that the students’ experience in conducting fieldwork contributed to a more sophisticated understanding of humanitarian interpreting as well as the expectations towards and of interpreters in the field of crisis translation.