The Research Division operates as one but has two parts: USA Research and International Research, each headed by their respective chair, each focusing on their respective areas.
Research Division Goals
- Promote research on medical interpreting efficacy and effect
- Promote research in cross-cultural communication
- Promote researcher professional development and networking
- Obtain grants for research in the field
- Support researchers in the field to do their research under the umbrella of the IMIA organization
IMIA Research Division is Formed - IMIA Seeks Interpreting Researchers - Identify Yourself by Checking off Researcher in your IMIA Profile!
All professions need research (and researchers) to improve. Medical interpreting is no exception. In order to increase the quality of the services we provide, we need to know: whether a certain strategy in a given context works or not, how other professionals expect interpreters to work, which features of a culture become more complex in a typical Western medical setting and what possible solutions are applicable...
This knowledge moves forward the discipline and will be a part of what future interpreters will be trained to do. It also increases our credibility as a profession as we are be perceived in more serious way as a professional community in the eyes of other professionals and also society in general.
This is why promoting research is one of IMIA's main objectives, as per the organization's charter. As a 501c3 non-profit organization, IMIA wishes to support its members who are pursuing masters, PhDs, and/or are doing grant-funded research in getting funding for their research projects through the IMIA as their research home.
If you see opportunities for grants, please propose your study to the IMIA Research Division and perhaps you can make the proposal under the IMIA Research Division, which is a 501c3.
Therefore we would now like to identify who amongst our membership has engaged in interpreter related research through scientifically sound research methodology, and/or have published in research publications, etc.
IMIA Profile Now Includes Researcher Question: If you are a researcher, please go into your IMIA Profile. Go to the IMIA website at
www.imiaweb.org and
log in. You will see a question at the top of the application that asks: Are you a researcher? By answering yes, you will allow the IMIA to identify you and this will be an important step in devising a Researcher Division for the activities of the organization. To find out who currently incorporates the Research Division, please go to the registry and search for 'researcher'.
If you are not a researcher but know of someone who is and might be interested in joining, please tell them about this initiative.
IMIA Administration
Rearch Resources
Seeking Participants in Survey:
In effort to better understand the experiences of medical interpreters in behavioral health settings, especially in regards to the treatment of trauma survivors. This research may help contribute to the professional development of medical interpreters in behavioral health settings as well as improve treatment experiences of limited English proficient (LEP) individuals seeking mental health services.
The study is being conducted by Pauline Stahlbrodt - Principal Investigator Mitchell Hick, Ph.D. - Advisor at Walden University Walden University
Survey closing date: November, 2015
To participate, click HERE
Interpreting Academic Studies, click HERE
10 Mistakes We All Make When Interpreting Research, click HERE
Annotated Bibliography, click HERE
Studies, click HERE
IMIA USA Research Division Expert Consultant
The IMIA is pleased to announce that Lissie Wahl-Kleiser, Ph.D. is the IMIA USA Research Expert Consultant.
Contact: ResearchUSA@imiaweb.org.
Lissie Wahl-Kleiser, Ph.D.
I'm a medical anthropologist and interpreter. I was born and raised in Lima, Perú. I developed in the middle of cultural and linguistic diversity. My mother was from Germany, my grandfather from Switzerland, my grandmother from Lima, and my father from Wisconsin. I knew the same things could be referred to in different ways, depending on the language. I also knew the same things could be culturally understood and differently managed.
My family loved to travel to the Andes and the Amazon, and I spent a large part of time in the countryside, riding a horse and playing with my friends among pre-hispanic archaeological remains. Not surprisingly, I eventually became an anthropologist. I completed my doctorate in the U.S. and for 30 years conducted research and did advocacy work with indigenous peoples among whom, again, differences were not just a matter of language but of cultural values as well. I worked on helping making peoples with no voice heard by outsiders. I also continuously worked on assisting in the interpretation of the outside world to them.
When I arrived here eight years ago and became a medical interpreter as well, I found my new task a curious turn on what had been my lifetime endeavor. Patients and doctors confronted enormous linguistic challenges. They also faced tremendously different cultural understandings of words and concepts once translated. I became a Research Fellow at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard University Medical School, and began working, researching, and discussing with colleagues the numerous issues that could be observed through medical interpreting. Many of these were mentioned frequently in the literature, interviews, and informal discussions. Nonetheless, they were only rarely discussed across disciplines with the institution of medical interpretation itself. I now am deeply engaged in this process with colleagues, doctors, and through various disciplines.
I live by the ocean in Revere, hold three additional jobs, and devote all of my spare time to working on the subject, walking along the beach with my dog, and enjoying my daughter whenever I can see her, now that she has graduated from college, has a full time job, and is initiating her own rhythm of life. For many reasons, I am now ready to engage in research as I rarely have before.
IMIA International Research Division Expert Consultant
The IMIA is pleased to announce that Carmen Valero Garces is the IMIA International Research Expert Consultant. Contact: ResearchIntl@imiaweb.org.
Carmen Valero Garces
Carmen Valero- Garcés is a Professor of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Alcalá, Madrid (Spain), and the Director of the Post Graduate Program on Public Service Interpreting and Translation, offered in nine language pairs since 2000 (http://www2.uah.es/traduccion). She is also the coordinator of The International Conference on Translation and Interpreting held at Alcalá since 1995 and the editor of the Proceedings. She is also responsible of the Research Group FITISPos® (http://www.fitispos.com.es), group dedicated to training and research in public service interpreting and translation, and a founder member of Red COMUNICA (Permanent Observatory of Communication between Languages in Cultures in Spain) (red-comunica.blogspot.com/). She is the editor of more than a dozen of books, including several multilingual guides about healthcare and education, as well as the author of some books and articles dealing with interpreting and translating in public services, cross-cultural communication, SLA and Contrastive Linguistics. Some recent publications are: Communicating in the Healthcare Setting/ La comunicación en el ámbito medico-sanitario (in print), Traducción e Interpretación en los Servicios Públicos en un mundo INTERcoNEcTado (TISP en INTERNET/ Public Service Interpreting and Translation in a Wild Wired World (PSIT in WWW).
IMIA International Research Division Vice Chair
The IMIA is pleased to announce that Dr. Effie Fragkou is the IMIA International Research Division Vice Chair. Contact: ResearchIntlVC@imiaweb.org.
Dr. Effie Fragkou
Effrossyni (Effie) Fragkou has a BA in French Language and Literature (University of Athens; Greece), a Master’s Degree in Professional Trilingual Translation (Université Marc Bloch; France), and a Master’s Degree in Translation Studies (York University; Canada). In 2012, she received her PhD in Translation Studies from the University of Ottawa. She has been working as a translator for over 15 years and a community interpreter for over 6 years. She developed and continuous to enrich the curriculum for Glendon’s Master’s Program in Interpretation, Course INT5730 – Interpreting in the Healthcare Sector (English into French), while working as a part-time instructor for York University, teaching this course online, and as a FSL teacher for the Greek government. She is also working in educating the educators and in developing teaching material for high-school students. Her academic interests include the following topics: retranslation theory, community interpreting, discourse analysis, the social aspects of localization and translation, professionalization, training and accreditation of community interpreters. She attends several international conferences in Translation and Interpretation Studies where she presents her work on the topics of retranslation and interpreting in the medical sector and has several academic publications.
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