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UAL Research Online

Making translation visible in translingual doctoral research: a call to action for doctoral supervisors

Mpamhanga, Karen (2025) Making translation visible in translingual doctoral research: a call to action for doctoral supervisors. Teaching in Higher Education. ISSN 1356-2517

Type of Research: Article
Creators: Mpamhanga, Karen
Description:

English dominates doctoral research, yet doctoral research experiences are often much more multilingual, and many doctoral researchers, whose primary language is not English, engage in translation during the research process. Translation is a complex activity that can be approached in different ways; it involves choices that have ramifications for research. Focussing on four decision-making moments, I argue that translation decisions should be made visible as part of a reflexive approach to translingual research, that recognises the additional labour of translation and enhances transparency and cross-cultural understanding. This is a call to action for doctoral supervisors, irrespective of language background and language experience, to embrace the challenge and opportunities that translation brings to research and to support their doctoral researchers to engage critically and openly with translation. Such visible engagement recognises the different languages, cultures, knowledges, values and ways of seeing the world that underpin research and our engagement with it.

Official Website: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13562517.2025.2581971
Keywords/subjects not otherwise listed: translation, supervision, doctoral education, research development
Publisher/Broadcaster/Company: Routledge
Your affiliations with UAL: Colleges > Camberwell College of Arts
Colleges > Central Saint Martins
Colleges > Chelsea College of Arts
Colleges > London College of Communication
Colleges > London College of Fashion
Colleges > Wimbledon College of Arts
Date: 20 November 2025
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1080/13562517.2025.2581971
Date Deposited: 10 Jun 2026 14:50
Last Modified: 10 Jun 2026 14:50
Item ID: 26909
URI: https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/26909
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives

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