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 from a 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. Cognitive Approaches to Translation. in Chapelle C, Hrsg., The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. 2020. S. 290-310

Risku H, Rogl R, Milosevic J. Researching workplaces. in Angelone E, Ehrensberger-Dow M, Massey G, Hrsg., The Bloomsbury Companion to Language Industry Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2020. S. 37-62 doi: 10.5040/9781350024960.0007



Risku H, Rogl R, Milosevic J. Introduction: Translation Practice in the Field: Current research on socio-cognitive processes. in Translation Practice in the Field: Current research on socio-cognitive processes. John Benjamins. 2019. S. 1-24 doi: 10.1075/bct.105

Risku H. Process Research. in Baker M, Saldanha G, Hrsg., Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. 3. Aufl. Routledge. 2019

Risku H, (ed.), Rogl R, (ed.), Milosevic J, (ed.). Translation Practice in the Field: Current research on socio-cognitive processes. John Benjamins, 2019. (Benjamins Current Topics).



Risku H, Milosevic J, Rogl R. Creativity in the Translation Workplace. in Cercel L, Agnetta M, Amido Lozano MT, Hrsg., Kreativität und Hermeneutik in der Translation. Tübingen: Narr Verlag. 2017. S. 455-469

Risku H. Ethnographies of translation and situated cognition. in Schwieter J, Ferreira A, Hrsg., The Handbook of Translation and Cognition. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. 2017. S. 290-310, doi: 10.1002/9781119241485.ch16

Risku H. Situated learning in translation research training: Academic research as a reflection of practice. in Gonzalez-Davies M, Enriquez Raído V, Hrsg., Situated Learning in Translator and Interpreter Training. Bridging Research and good practice. 1 Aufl. Band 10. Routledge. 2017. S. 12-28 doi: 10.1080/1750399X.2016.1154340


Risku H. Berufliche Anforderungen im Bereich der Translation. in Kadric M, Kaindl K, Hrsg., Berufsziel Übersetzen und Dolmetschen: Grundlagen, Ausbildung, Arbeitsfelder . Tübingen: Narr Verlag. 2016. S. 39-62,





Risku H, Milosevic J, Pein-Weber C. Writing vs. translating: dimensions of text production in comparison. in Muñoz Martín R, Hrsg., Reembedding Translation Process Research. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 2016. S. 47-68 doi: 10.1075/btl.128.03ris

Risku H, Windhager F. Extended Translation: A Socio-cognitive Research Agenda. in Ehrensberger-Dow M, Göpferich S, O'Brien S, Hrsg., Interdisciplinarity in Translation and Interpreting Process Research. 1 Aufl. Band 25. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 2015. S. 33-45 doi: 10.1075/target.25.1.04ris

Institut für Translationswissenschaft

Gymnasiumstraße 50
1190 Wien
Zimmer: N2.18

T: +43-1-4277-58017

hanna.risku@univie.ac.at