Hi all! I’m Maartje and I’ll be curating Translation Talk this week. Quick bio: I’m a lecturer/senior researcher @HU_Utrecht living in Belgium. I’m also affiliated to @HeriotWattBSL as a honorary research fellow. I look forward to spending this week with you! /1

I specialize in applied language studies. I’m not an interpreter/translator. I work (teach) in a sign language interpreting dept @HU_IGTD and over the years became very interested in sign language interpreting as a researcher. I’ll talk about some of these interests this week. /2

Also, because I’m a deaf academic working in non-signing spaces (too) I tend to say I’m a ‘super user’ of sign language interpreters (SLI). This ‘super user’ status is one I have by necessity and not (always) by choice /3

This lived experience as a deaf woman/academic significantly informs my views as a researcher, and vice versa. So while I often work with SLI, I also like to talk and think about sign language interpreting, with deaf peers and with sign language interpreters. /4

I often think that when you’re deaf, interested in language and communication, and language policy (like I am), you cannot NOT be fascinated by the phenomenon of sign language interpreting /5

Some of the things I’m interested in: why and how deaf people work with SLI, relationships between deaf people and interpreters, and sign language interpreting as a socio-political institution within a larger framework of multilingualism and inclusion. /6

My working languages include English, Dutch, Dutch Sign Language (NGT), International Sign (IS) and British Sign Language (BSL). My family languages at home are Flemish Sign Language and Dutch. I’m working with interpreters for all these languages. /7

So when I say ‘interpreters’ this week, you can assume I mean ‘sign language interpreters’ - I hope the topics discussed here will be of interest to interpreters/translators for spoken languages too. Let me know if there is anything you’d like to know or discuss! /end