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Staff Profile

Dr JC Penet

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Translation Studies

Background

Dr Penet is a Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies and the current Director (DPD) of the MA Professional Translation for European Languages. He is also a Certified Personal and Executive Coach (Level 7).


Since joining the School of Modern Languages in 2010, Dr Penet has taught on a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Translation Studies, including on translation theory; the language service industry; CAT tools and translation project management; institutional translation; AI literacy for translators, and interpersonal relations, emotions and wellbeing in the translation profession. Through the ‘Translation Networks’ project (2014-18), he has established lasting networks with local language service providers and freelancers in North East England. 


Nationally, he founded  APTIS (Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting Studies, UK and Ireland) with Dr Olga Castro (Warwick) in 2016-17. Following the inaugural AGM, he became the Association's first President in September 2017 and remained in this post until November 2021.


Dr Penet's research interests lie in the fields of Translator Studies/Language Industry Studies and Translator Education (see the 'Research' tab for more information on this). Recognising as part of his research that taking a coaching approach to emotion-management could be a particularly apt way to help students, he became a certified life coach after successfully completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Coaching with the University of Warwick in 2023.


He is interested in hearing from translators, translator trainers or other prospective postgraduate students with an interest in translation who would like to pursue PhD research on the role of emotions in translator/interpreter education, wellbeing for trainee/professional translators or the concept of self-care applied to trainee/professional translators. Other potential topics involve translators' status and working conditions, the impact of generative AI on the professional as well as professional standards and ethical issues in translation.


Dr Penet is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). In 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Vice-Chancellor's Education Excellence Award in recognition for his dedication to education at Newcastle University. He is an External Examiner for UG and PG programmes in Translation Studies at Leeds University (2019-23), The Open University (2020-25) and Swansea University (2021-25).


Qualifications:

  • PG Certificate in Coaching (University of Warwick, 2023; Distinction)
  • PG Certificate in Advanced Studies in Academic Practice (Newcastle University, 2012; Distinction)
  • PhD (Dublin, Ireland - 2009)
  • MPhil. (Lille, France - 2005; Distinction)
  • BA in English Studies (Lille, France - 2003; First)
  • BA in Germanic Studies (Lille, France - 2003; 2.1)


Association Membership:


Recent CPD:

  • Enhancing Programme Leadership (Advance HE, 2021)
  • Effective Online Course Design (University of Oxford, 2020)
  • International Summer School in Translation Technology (University of Leuven, 2018)




Research

Dr Penet's research explores recent developments in the language industry and their impact on the translation profession(s). More specifically, he researches the impact of what can be called the 'technological turn' - with the relentless automation of the industry in the last 25 years - on the industry's production models (e.g. outsourcing) and the nature of the job of professional translators (e.g. PEMT). How do these developments influence the way translators perceive the sustainability of their profession? What is their impact on the financial, physical and psychological wellbeing of professional translators? Beyond professional translators, how do these changes affect the rest of the language industry and wider society as large?


Another question his research seeks to answer is the impact these changes have on the way we understand and deliver translator training. How can translator trainers better help trainee translators to thrive in this complex and fast-changing industry? To that affect, he also investigates the way(s) in which Trait Emotional Intelligence theory - and what we know about the role of emotions in professional translating - can be applied to translator training to help students develop the adaptive expertise they will need to thrive in the language industry. 


Current research projects:

  • "Chasing Status: The Sustainability of the Freelance Translation Profession in the United Kingdom" - Co-Investigator with Dr Callum Walker (Leeds, Principal Investigator) and Dr Joseph Lambert (Cardiff, Co-Investigator). British Academy Small Research Grant awarded in March 2023 (£9,060).


  • "Let's talk about emotions: Exploring the role of Trait EI in translator training" Phase 2 (2022-2023) co-led with Dr Maria Fernadez-Parra (Swansea University). 
  1. The first phase of this project (2021-2022) won the APTIS Award for Great Pedagogical Practice 2022 (November 2022, Leeds University).
  2. As part of this research project, Dr Penet trained as a coach (PG Certificate in Coaching) with the University of Warwick in 2022-2023.


Current book project:

Dr Penet's book "Working as a Professional Translator" will be published by Routledge in the coming months. It will form part of the "Routledge Introductions to Translation and Interpreting" series edited by Pr. Sergey Tyulenev (Durham University)


Other research collaboration:

Dr Penet is an Associate Partner of the research project EFFORT ("Towards a European Framework of Reference for Translation"; Funded by Erasmus : 2020-23): effortproject.eu.

Lead institution: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.


He is a partner of CATO ("Competence Awareness in TranslatiOn"; 2018-date) - Pan-European project surveying MA Translation students' self-awareness of competences they are developing on their course (based on EMT Competence Framework). Lead institution: Université de Paris, France.


Past funded projects:

  • Translation Networks (2014-18)
  • NU InterComs - Intercultural Competence for University Students (2016-19)


Dr Penet regularly host webinars on translator education for the Association of Programmes in Translation and Interpreting Studies Studies (APTIS).

Teaching

Dr Penet teaches at both UG and PG level. He teaches the main theories of translation, professional and socio-cultural aspects of translation as well as institutional translation. He also teaches more practical (workflow-related) aspects of translation such as CAT tools, project management, terminology management and quality control.


2023-24Teaching:

BA Modern Languages, Translation and Interpreting:

  • TRI1002: Translation Theory & Practice 1 (Module Leader)
  • TRI2002: Translation Theory & Practice 2 
  • TRI4002: Translation Theory & Practice 3 (Module Leader)

MA Translation & MA Professional Translation for European Languages:

  • SML8023: The Language Industry (Module Leader)
  • SML8024: Translator Entrepreneur (Module Leader)
  • SML8025: Translating for a Big Institution: The EU - A Case Study (Module Leader)


Dr Penet regularly supervises final-year undergraduate and MA dissertations in the field of Translation Studies. More specifically, he welcome dissertation projects on the following topics:

  • Translation and/in Industry e.g. Translators in the age of language technology/automation (e.g. AI); Translation Quality Assurance [especially the gap between academia and the industry]; Collaborative translation and crowdsourced translation; Institutional translation; User-centred approaches to translating; Video-game translation/localisation; New trends emerging in language industry etc.
  • Translator skills/competences e.g. Role of (inter)cultural competence in translator competence; role of emotions in translator competence [psychological dimensions] etc.
  • Translators and/in society e.g. Translators' status and working conditions; Translators' (professional) sub-cultures and identities; Translators and (self-)censorship; Translation as a form of cultural appropriation? etc.
Publications