Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hanna Risku
Hanna Risku

Sprechstunde: Sprechstunde dienstags um 9:30-10:30 Uhr; Anmeldung per E-Mail

Current FWF research project: Rethinking translation expertise: a workplace study (Retrex, P33132)

The objective of this research project is to contribute to an understanding of how translation expertise is understood and constructed by working professionals. The project explores the lived translation expertise of working professionals, which is assumed to differ from the established perspectives of translation process research. To do so, the project views experts as social actors who
construct expertise in interaction with other social actors and tools. Accordingly, the social, performative and situative aspects of expertise are placed in the foreground. The project investigates how translation expertise is socially constructed and rationalized in the workplace, which notions of expertise emerge and how these manifest themselves in day-to-day working life. This includes questions of possible contradictions between what people say they do and what they actually do, the strategic interests that underlie the expertise discourse and potential conflicts between different constructions of expertise. The empirical insights into the lived expertise of working professionals will offer new perspectives for translation studies and prove fruitful for theoretical reconceptualizations.

This research project takes the form of a translation workplace study and approaches the topic froma qualitative, ethnographic perspective. To capture the emic, insider perspective of the participants as closely as possible, the project uses an ethnographically oriented multi-case research design with a deep, multi-faceted analysis of a number of selected translation agencies. To grasp the different dimensions of lived expertise (actual workplace praxis, rationalizations of the social actors involved, normative descriptions), a combination of participant observations, interviews, focus groups and document analysis will be used to collect the data.

Risku H, Hulitschke S. Weiterbildung: privat und öffentlich-rechtlich. in Hennig J, Tjarks-Sobhani M, Hrsg., Aus- und Weiterbildung für Technische Kommunikation (= tekom-Schriften zur Technischen Kommunikation 10). Lübeck: Schmidt-Römhild. 2005. S. 86-105,

Parycek P, Risku H. Intercultural e-Government. in Wimmer MA, Hrsg., Knowledge Management in Electronic Government: 5th IFIP International Working Conference, KMGov 2004. Berlin: Springer. 2004. S. 47-53,


Risku H. Technologieeinsatz in der Interkulturellen Fachkommunikation. in Burg et al. T, Hrsg., Mensch, Technologie, Management: Interdisziplinäre Herausforderungen. Krems: TIM Fachbuchverlag. 2004. S. 208-222,


Risku H. Migrating from Translation to Technical Communication and Usability. in Hansen G, Malmkjær K, Gile D, Hrsg., Translation Studies: Claims, Changes and Challenges: Selected Contributions from the EST Congress, Copenhagen 2001. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 2003. S. 181-196,

Risku H. Situatedness and Artefacts in Expert Knowledge and Activity. in Gadner J, Buber R, Richards L, Hrsg., Organizing everyday knowledge: methods and case studies. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. 2003. S. 28-42,

Risku H. Textgestalter auf Kollisionskurs? Interkulturelle Technische Kommunikation als interdisziplinäre Kollaboration. in Nord B, Schmitt PA, Hrsg., TRADUCTA NAVIS. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. 2003. S. 183-190,





Risku H, Freihoff R. Kooperative Textgestaltung im translatorischen Handlungsrahmen. in Chesterman A, San Salvador NG, Gambier Y, Hrsg., Translation in Context: Selected contributions from the EST Congress, Granada 1988. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 2000. S. 49-58,


Risku H. Situated Translation und Situated Cognition: ungleiche Schwestern. in Kadric M, Kaindl K, Pöchhacker F, Hrsg., Translationswissenschaft: Festschrift für Mary Snell-Hornby zum 60. Geburtstag. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. 2000. S. 81-91,

Risku H, Kohnhauser V. Vorwort. in Kohnhauser V, Risku H, Hrsg., Der Weg zu Business Excellence. Krems: Donau-Universität Krems, Telekommunikation, Information und Medien. 2000. S. 7-8,

Risku H. Constructivist Consequences: Translation and Reality. in Riegler A, von Stein A, Peschl M, Hrsg., Understanding Representation in the Cognitive Sciences. New York: Plenum Press. 1999. S. 247-252,

Risku H. Kognitionswissenschaft. in Hönig HG, Kußmaul P, Schmitt PA, Snell-Hornby M, Hrsg., Handbuch Translation. 2 Aufl. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. 1999. S. 119-122,

Risku H. Translatorisches Handeln. in Hönig HG, Kußmaul P, Schmitt PA, Snell-Hornby M, Hrsg., Handbuch Translation. 2 Aufl. Tübingen: Stauffenburg. 1999. S. 107-112,


Institut für Translationswissenschaft

Gymnasiumstraße 50
1190 Wien
Zimmer: N2.18

T: +43-1-4277-58017

hanna.risku@univie.ac.at