What is expertise? Researching your projects and managing impostor syndrome

This event will now be held in a hybrid format, so if you can’t attend in person, your ticket will entitle you to watch online via Zoom or catch-up with the recording.

Do you have to be a mechanic to translate for the automotive industry? How much legal training is necessary to work on legal texts? Linguists are frequently confronted with highly specialised source material. Even seasoned professionals have knowledge gaps in their areas of specialisation. What is ‘subject-matter expertise’ and when do we have enough? This talk outlines how to evaluate your knowledge level, decide whether a project is within your range, and remedy knowledge gaps with background research. It is aimed at translators and interpreters alike.

For this Social Saturday event, we will meet at Oppidan Social (1st Floor, 23 Edge Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1HW) from 2pm to 4pm on Saturday 19th November, and discuss the issues we all encounter when estimating our own level of expertise. Thanks to the methodological approach suggested by Maureen Cohen, a PhD Candidate in Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, we will discover how to keep that pesky impostor syndrome at bay, and how to opt for a more realistic and confident approach to expertise.

The venue offers tea, coffee and biscuits to help you relax and mingle, so this is also an opportunity to socialise with fellow translators and interpreters!

If you are unable to attend in-person, fear not! The event will be accessible online (via Zoom) and a recording will be made available to registered attendants shortly after.

Tickets are a bargain at £5 for NWTN/ITI members, and £10 for non-members (+ Eventbrite booking fees), but in-person places are limited so do book early!