The format for the event will be an introduction to the paper followed by breakout rooms for small groups to discuss the paper – We can discuss such things as what did you learn? What did you like? What did you not like? What did you not understand? How might this inform your practice? What other CPD might you look to undertake because of reading the paper?

Key dates:

Sunday 10th Nov – Registration and voting opens. You will need to supply your name and an email address upon registration.

Wednesday 13th Nov – Voting closes and the chosen paper will be emailed to particpants. Members who haven’t voted can still register, read the paper and attend.

Tuesday 19th Nov , 7:00pm – 8:00pm – Online meeting to discuss the paper. Zoom will open at 6:45 for a mini social chinwag!

If you are registering after voting has closed, you will not have a say in which paper will be selected and the winning paper will be listed below. This is to ensure we have ample time to read the paper before the event. Please do not worry if your preferred paper is not chosen this time as papers receiving a significant number of votes can be added to another month’s list.

Papers to choose from:

1. Sensory ecologies and semiotic assemblages during British Sign Language interpreted weather forecasts (Stone and Köhring, 2020)

We present a study examining broadcast British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted weather forecasts. These are filmed against a green screen with a superimposed composite image broadcast including maps and satellite information, etc. that can be indexed. We examine the semiotic resources used when interacting with the available visible on-screen information to the viewing audiences. The forecasters and interpreters tailor their multimodal communicative practice to the sensory ecology (Kusters, 2017) of the audiences they serve. That is to say that, speakers/hearers hear the spoken monolingual linguistic resources while seeing the gestural resources of the forecaster; BSL signers/watchers view the multilingual linguistic resources (both categorical and gradient) and co-sign gestural resources, subsequently watching the gestural resources of the forecaster and the interpreter-presenter. We identify that while similar gestural resources are used by the weather presenters and the in- vision interpreter-presenters, the temporal alignment of the semiotic assemblages (Pennycook & Otsuji, 2017) of linguistic and gestural resources are different. The assumed normative practices of the deaf audience appear to significantly contribute to the consecutive use of semiotic resources that we see presented in BSL by in-vision interpreter-presenters. In addition to simultaneous assemblages, favoured by the weather forecaster presenters, they also create consecutive semiotic assemblages. 

2. Finally Free from the Interpreter's Gaze? Uncovering the Hidden Labor of Gaze Work for Deaf Consumers of Interpreter Services. (De Meulder and Stone, 2024)

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift towards remote video-mediated sign language interpreting. This has uncovered the hidden labor of gaze work that deaf consumers of interpreting services have been obliged to engage in. We specifically focus on one group of deaf consumers of interpreter services: deaf academics. We consider the role of interpreter education in the context of the backchanneling expectation, the invisibility of gaze work prior to the proliferation of remote video-mediated interpreting, during the COVID era, and then post-COVID. Throughout this chronology, we consider the expectations of interpreters and deaf academics for interaction and feedback between interpreter and academic. While gaze work historically forms part of the wider calculated consumer labor, this is something within the conference setting that deaf consumers are now more resistant to engage in. This is partly because of sensory overload and the need to manage multimodal resources. However, this is also about exercising choices. We highlight the need for sign language interpreters to be educated in more nuanced ways with respect to gaze behaviors. It is clear that deaf consumers want interpreters to provide solutions to ensure that interpreter-mediated access provides access without the problematic addition of consumer labor.

3. Space, body and presence: An analytical framework for remote interpreting (Jerkovic, 2024)

The trend towards remote interpreting has caused a radical change for interpreters worldwide, one that has shifted their workplace from well- known physical spaces to new digital spaces. Research to date has documented specific settings, language combinations and/or interpreting modes, and it has usually focused on certain forms of remote interpreting (e.g., video remote interpreting, video relay service). The combinations of different characteristics and factors in remote interpreting are almost infinite, however, and single terms fail to depict and cover all possible variations. This article proposes an analytical framework that uses conceptualisations of space, body and presence to analyse interpreting assignments in digital spaces, regardless of language combination, setting and mode. Two examples are used to illustrate the application of this framework: a hybrid conference and a meeting in virtual reality (VR), both of them involving sign language interpreting. The use of VR has undergone a substantial increase in the past few years, having developed rapidly. It is therefore possible that future interpreting assignments might take place in this new digital space. The application of these two scenarios shows that the analytical framework can be used both to reflect on past and to anticipate future assignments.