Miriam Shlesinger (20 May 1947, in

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which sep ...

– 10 November 2012) was a US-

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and interpreter.

Biography

Miriam Shlesinger was born in 1947 in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. In 1964 she moved to Israel in order to study. She completed her BA at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

Musicology Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

and English Linguistics. At the beginning of the 1970s Shlesinger took up

Translation Studies Translation studies is an academic interdiscipline dealing with the systematic study of the theory, description and application of translation, interpreting, and Language localisation, localization. As an interdiscipline, translation studies borr ...

at the

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

. From 1978 she taught at the Institute for Translation Studies at the same university. She completed her MA in Poetics and Literary Studies in 1990 at the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

with a thesis on "Simultaneous interpretation as a factor in effecting shifts in the position of texts in the oral-literate continuum". She completed her PhD at Bar-Ilan University, where she was head of the Institute for Translation Studies from 2003 to 2007. Shlesinger was head of the ''Language Policy Research Center'' at Bar-Ilan University. She developed a course in ''Translation in the Community'' at the ''Language Policy Research Center'' in order to give basic interpreting skills to students who spoke minority languages (such as

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

) so that they could work with recent immigrants.Professor Miriam Shlesinger died on 10. November 2012, European Society for Translation Studies
/ref> On 10 November 2012 Shlesinger died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

Research interests

* Cognitive processes in

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

and

interpreting Interpreting is a translational activity in which one produces a first and final target-language output on the basis of a one-time exposure to an expression in a source language. The most common two modes of interpreting are simultaneous inter ...

* ''Community Interpreting'' * Corpus-based Translation Studies * Court interpreting *

Language policy Language policy is an interdisciplinary academic field. Some scholars such as Joshua Fishman and Ofelia García consider it as part of sociolinguistics. On the other hand, other scholars such as Bernard SpolskyRobert B. Kaplanand Joseph Lo Bianco ...

Awards

In 2001 the

Copenhagen Business School Copenhagen Business School (Danish'': Handelshøjskolen i København'') often abbreviated and referred to as CBS (also in Danish), is a public university situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is considered one of the most prestigious business schoo ...

made Shlesinger a

Doctor honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

. In 2007 she was CETRA Professor at

KU Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. In 2010 she was awarded the

Danica Seleskovitch Danica Seleskovitch (December 6, 1921 – April 17, 2001) was a French conference interpreter, teacher and prolific academic writer on translation studies. Among other career milestones, she founded the Interpretive Theory of Translation. B ...

Prize. In 2011 she was granted the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Israel Translators Association.

Main publications

* With Franz Pöchhacker (eds): ''The Interpreting Studies Reader''. Routledge, London 2002. * With Anthony Pym and Zuzana Jettmarova (eds): ''Sociocultural aspects of translating and interpreting''. John Benjamins, Amsterdam and Philadelphia 2006. * With Franz Pöchhacker (ed.): ''Healthcare Interpreting: Discourse and Interaction''. John Benjamins, Amsterdam and Philadelphia 2007. * With Anthony Pym and Daniel Simeoni (eds). ''Descriptive translation studies and beyond: Investigations in homage to Gideon Toury''. John Benjamins, Amsterdam and Philadelphia 2008. * With Rodica Dimitriu (eds): ''Translators and their readers – in homage to Eugene A. Nida''. Les Éditions du Hasard, Brussels 2009. * With Franz Pöchhacker (eds): ''Doing justice to court interpreting''. Benjamins Current Topics, Volume 26. John Benjamins, Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 2010. * Co-editing of the journal ''Interpreting: International journal of research and practice in interpreting''. Amsterdam, John Benjamins, from 2003. *Franz Pöchhacker, Arnt L. Jakobsen, Inger Mees (eds): ''Interpreting Studies and Beyond: A Tribute to Miriam Shlesinger''. Samfundslitteratur Press, Copenhagen 2007.

References

External links

Tributes to Miriam Shlesinger
on the Homepage of the European Society for Translation Studies, visited 18 June 2015
Article on Miriam Shlesinger
in the newspaper Haaretz, visited 18 June 2015
Miriam Shlesinger
on the Homepage of Words Without Borders, visited 18 June 2015
Interview with Miriam Shlesinger, August 8, 2007
European Society for Translation Studies, visited 22 June 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Shlesinger, Miriam People from Tel Aviv 1947 births Tel Aviv University alumni Linguists from Israel Israeli translation scholars 2012 deaths