School of Arts, Translation
Swansea University
Singleton Park
Swansea SA2 8PP

Email: 224671@swansea.ac.uk 

My Research

The focus of my research is to examine to what extent the formalism of Conceptual Structure as developed by Jackendoff can be applied to word formation processes, and how the theory should be adapted and expanded to accommodate the processes and differences between the individual languages studied.  This comparative study will analyse data primarily from Romance languages, namely French, Spanish and Portuguese, but with references to other languages such as English, German and Russian where applicable, constituting a novel development of this theory.

My Teaching

I have worked as a demonstrator for the undergraduate modules of Machine Translation and Computer Assisted Translation. I have also taught French General Language Level 1 and Level 3 (Translation) and am currently teaching the Level 2 French Translation Workshop.

My Background

Having grown up in the West Country and completing my schooling in Bristol, I moved to Swansea in 2002 where I completed my BA (Hons) in French and Spanish, with equal credits taken in Portuguese, in 2006. During my year abroad, I worked as an Assistante in two secondary schools in the outskirts of Montpellier for 7 months, before studying at Guadalajara University in Mexico for 3 months. I then attended a month-long Portuguese language course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After completing my undergraduate degree, I stayed on at Swansea and completed the MA in Translation with Language Technology in 2007, taking advanced translation in French and Spanish and Russian Ab Initio. Following the MA, I spent several months undertaking charity work for a Swansea-based charity called Study Guatemala which culminated in a 7-day volcano trek in the highlands of Guatemala to raise funds to build a new school for disadvantaged children in one of the most deprived areas of Guatemala City. I then spent 7 months working for the Welsh Assembly Government in the Knowledge Exploitation Fund, whilst working as a freelance translator in my spare time. I have translated for several high-profile documentaries, such as Amazon with Bruce Parry, which have appeared on the BBC and the Discovery Channel, in addition to numerous other more technical projects. After a year out of academia, I returned to University in October 2008 to start my PhD. In my spare time, I continue to be involved with Study Guatemala after being asked to sit on the Board of Trustees. I am also currently Captain of the University Karate Club and enjoy running along Swansea Bay to keep fit.