Translatorial practices have been under constant change over the past decades. Evolving technologies and digitalization have constantly remodeled both the practicalities of translation and interpreting work, and the cultural and economic understandings of multilingual communication. Our research group, established in 2017, builds on the sociological research tradition in Translation Studies, an approach Tampere-based and Tampere-raised scholars have actively participated in creating. Working with a wide network of national and international collaborators, we aim to map and understand, and also to participate in changing, the current landscape and its ongoing change processes, looking into professional, paraprofessional and non-professional practices of translation. We are also curious about the cultural meanings of translation and manifestations of translatoriality and translationality beyond the realms of linguistic expression.
Foundation for our work
The foundation for our research work is our shared intellectual motivation to discover what is going on in the various translatorial landscapes of the society. We implement this through various methods, such as immersive fieldwork, interviews, and more traditional surveys. The landscapes we have recently studied include: machine translation as a social phenomenon, public service interpreting, contemporary literary translation, paraprofessional translators in organizations, revision practices in the language industry, multilingual practices during Covid19, military interpreters and the role of language in modern warfare, and museum as (re)translation.
Focus of theorizing and conceptualizing
We focus on advancing existing theories and concepts of translatorial landscapes, including the following:
• user-centered translation
• paraprofessional translation
• translation as affective labour
• translatoriality
• institutionalization of translation.
Constantly sharpening methodological approaches
We are both bold and mindful in developing our methodologies, constantly sharpening our approaches, involving the following:
• translatorial linguistic ethnography (Koskinen, 2020)
• researcher positionality (Hokkanen & Koskinen, 2025)
• co-construction of knowledge (Jakkula, forthcoming).
Fresh insights
We are active in discovering insights from around the translatorial society. We implement this through:
• organizing workshops for professionals and translation users
• bringing knowledge back to research participants
• combining researcher-practitioner roles
• transporting insights generated in Translation Studies to other disciplines.
Research team
Our research team has both breadth and depth in terms of academic careers, including experienced scholars and new contributors in academia.
Senior scholars: Kaisa Koskinen (PI), Sari Hokkanen, Tuija Kinnunen, Mary Nurminen
Marie Curie Research Fellow: Raphael Sannholm, project Translating Institutional Systems (TRAILS)
Post-Docs: Riku Haapaniemi, Anu Heino, Annamari Korhonen, Jenni Laaksonen (TUNI, accounting)
Doctoral researchers: Maria Annukka Jakkula (Emil Aaltonen foundation), Buşra Kaya, Eva Laakso, Anni-Kaisa Leminen, Helmi Marttila (KONE), Pekka Snellman
Interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration
International Business studies: Prof. Rebecca Piekkari (Aalto), Prof. emerita Susanne Tietze, Dr. Sylwia Ciuk, Prof. Martina Sliwa (the UK).
Gender studies: Prof. emerita Jaana Vuori (UEF) & Propsi project
Translation Studies: Prof. Helle Dam (Aarhus), Prof. Maarit Koponen (UEF), Prof. Simo Määttä (HY & KONE), Assoc. Prof. Jonathan Ross (Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey), Dr. Elin Svahn (Stockholm University)
Completed PhDs
- Tytti Suojanen. 2018. Suomalaista teknistä viestintää : Sinä- ja me-asenne kotoistamisstrategioina kodinkoneiden käyttöohjeissa 1945-1995
- Elin Svahn (Stockholm University). 2020. The Dynamics of Extratextual Translatorship in Contemporary Sweden. A Mixed Methods Approach.
- Mary Nurminen. 2021. Investigating the Influence of Context in the Use and Reception of Raw Machine Translation
- Jenni Laaksonen. 2023. Taking Translation into Account
- Annamari Korhonen. 2024. Translation Revision as Part of Cognitive Translatorial Collaboration: Creativity under pressure
- Anu Heino. 2024. Mediators and Writers : Contemporary Finnish literary translators and their narrative translatorship
- Riku Haapaniemi. 2025. Materiality in Translation Theory and Practice : A semiotic perspective on the materiality of texts in the translation process
Key publications (under construction)
- Dam, Helle & Koskinen, Kaisa (Eds.). (2016). The translation profession: centres and peripheries. Special issue of JoSTrans, 25. http://www.jostrans.org/issue25/issue25_toc.php
- Hokkanen, Sari. (2025). Affective labor in the simultaneous interpreting of prayer: An autoethnographic re-analysis. In Field Research on Translation and Interpreting, edited by Regina Rogl, Daniela Schlager and Hanna Risku. Benjamins Translation Library 165. John Benjamins. 98–116. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.165
- Hokkanen, Sari & Koskinen, Kaisa. (2025). Managing Positionality: Reflexivity as a Key to Robust Research in Translation Studies. In Positionalities of Translation Studies: On the Situatedness of Translation Research, edited by G. Elsherif, & J. Sobesto. Bloomsbury Advances in Translation. Bloomsbury Academic. 197–213. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202510069694
- Korhonen, Annamari (Forthcoming). Revision as a Practice of the Translation Industry: A Practice-Theoretical Description. In The Reality of Revision, edited by Ilse Feinauer and Amanda Marais.
- Korhonen, Annamari (2025). Revision files as cognitive ethnographic data: Artefact analysis of file and software features combined with systemic functional discourse analysis. In Field Research on Translation and Interpreting, edited by Regina Rogl, Daniela Schlager and Hanna Risku. Benjamins Translation Library 165. John Benjamins. 226–250. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.165.10kor
- Korhonen, Annamari, Pitkäsalo, Eliisa, & Hokkanen, Sari (Eds.) (2024). Tutkimusopas: Käännöstiedettä opinnäytteisiin. Tampere Studies in Language, Translation and Literature. Tampere: Tampere University. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-3755-1
- Koskinen, Kaisa (Ed.) (Forthcoming). Paraprofessional translation at work. John Benjamins.
- Koskinen, Kaisa (2025). Translating at Work: Identifying and contextualizing paraprofessional translatoriality in organizations. In Field Research on Translation and Interpreting, edited by Regina Rogl, Daniela Schlager and Hanna Risku. Benjamins Translation Library 165. John Benjamins. 36–54. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.165.01kos
- Koskinen, Kaisa & Pokorn, Nike K. (Eds.). (2020). Handbook of Translation and Ethics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003127970
- Koskinen, Kaisa, Vuori, Jaana & Leminen, Anni-Kaisa (Eds). (2018). Asioimistulkkaus – monikielisen yhteiskunnan arkea. Tampere. Vastapaino.
- Leminen, Anni-Kaisa & Hokkanen, Sari. (2024). Exploring ethical dilemmas encountered by public service interpreters and their effect on job satisfaction. Translation Spaces (13, 1). 149–169. https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.23022.lem
- Suojanen, Tytti, Koskinen, Kaisa & Tuominen, Tiina. (2015). User-Centered Translation. Routledge.
- Snellman, Pekka (2018). Tulkit rauhanturvaajina: upseerien käsityksiä sotilas- ja paikallistulkkien kanssa työskentelystä. In Asioimistulkkaus: Monikielisen yhteiskunnan arkea, edited by Kaisa Koskinen, Jaana Vuori, & Anni-Kaisa Leminen. Tampere. Vastapaino, 219–256.
- Snellman, Pekka (2025). New Trends in Language Use in Warfare. In The Routledge Handbook of Translating and Interpreting Conflict, edited by Marija Todorova & Lucía Ruiz Rosendo. Routledge Handbooks in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Routledge. 307–323.