Dr Sameh Hanna

Lecturer in Translation Studies and Arabic

• Maxwell 826
• T: +44 (0) 161 295 2215
• E: s.hanna@salford.ac.uk
• SEEK: Research profile

Wednesday 10.00 am – 11.00 am

Thursday  10.00 am – 12.00

I joined the university of Salford in2007 as a lecturer in translation studies and Arabic. After studying English literature, linguistics and literary theory at Ain Shams University (Egypt), I moved to University of Manchester to study translation and intercultural studies and complete a PhD on the sociological aspects of the Arabic translations of Shakespeare’s tragedies in Egypt. In 2006 I was awarded an Andrew W Mellon postdoctoral fellowship in the humanities at University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/mellon-program/fellows/sameh/index.shtml. I have taught at a number of universities including Academy of Arts in Cairo, American University in Cairo, University of Manchester, UCL and University of Salford.

I currently lead the MA programmes in Translating, Interpreting and Translating and Translating for International Business. In addition to my teaching and researching of translation, I have a number of published translations from English to Arabic in the areas of literary and theatre studies.

My main research interest is in the area of sociology of translation, with particular focus on the implications of Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of cultural production for the study of drama translation into Arabic. Part of my research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals and presented in international conferences. I am also interested in the social/cultural history of translation into Arabic and would welcome enquiries from potential PhD candidates with interest in any of these areas. I currently supervise PhD students working on the following topics: translation of metaphor in economic texts, translation of Islamic/Islamist discourses into English and subtitling mythological and religious references into Arabic.

I co-organised a number of international and national research events, including the first conference of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) in 2005 and a one-day symposium on the sociology of translation and interpreting at the University of Salford (2010).

 2009- to date: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

2005- to date: A founding member of the association ‘Assemblée pour traduire entre les cultures’.

2003- to date: A founding member and member of the executive council of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS).

1994: Member of the Translation Committee of The First International Conference on Averroes and Enlightenment, sponsored by the Supreme Council of Culture of Egypt, the Arab League and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

1993-2002: Member of the Translation and Interpreting Committee of Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre.

 2011 ‘Flows of English-Arabic Translation in Egypt in the Areas of Literature, Literary/Cultural and Theatre Studies: Two Case Studies of the Genesis and Development of the Translation Market in Modern Egypt’, Mapping Translation in the Mediterranean. Paris: Transeuropeennes and Anna Lindh Foundation.

2009 ‘Othello in the Egyptian Vernacular: Negotiating the ‘doxic’ in Drama Translation and Identity Formation’, in Translation and Nation in the Middle East, a special issue of The Translator 15 (1) 157-178.

2009 ‘Exploring MA students’ attitudes to translation theory and practice: an action research approach’, in The Sign Language Translator and Interpreter, 3(2), 141-155.

2008 ‘Translation Studies: Beginnings, Trajectories and Questions of the Future’, in a special issue of the Arabic-speaking Quarterly Fusul on Translation and Intercultural Studies (in Arabic). 

2007: ‘De-commercialising Shakespeare: Mutran’s Translation of Othello’, in The Arab Shakespeare, a special issue of Critical Survey, 19 (3). 

2005: ‘Hamlet Lives Happily Ever After in Arabic: The Genesis of the Field of Drama Translation in Egypt’. The Translator, 11 (2).

2005: ‘Othello in Egypt: Translation and the (un)Making of National Identity’, in First Yearbook of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies, 2005.