Anne M. Leahy

Photograph of Anne M. Leahy

Department of Modern Languages
Doctoral researcher

Contact details

Phd title: Paths to Signed Language Interpreting in Great Britain and America since 1150 AD
Supervisor: Dr Hilary Brown and Gabriela Saldanha
PhD in Modern Languages (Translation)

I have been a private practice American Sign Language-English interpreter/translator, mentor and presenter since 1989. My MA is in Professional Communication, from Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah, US. My thesis introduced a model to examine the legal pedigree of interpreting with deaf parties under Anglo-American Common Law.

Research

The scant scholarship at the nexus of signed language interpreting and translation history in Anglophone countries tends toward memoir and folklore, and focuses on the perspective of the deaf party. My research pivots toward the interpreter’s perspective, investigating the linguistic and social foundations of how lay bilingual-bimodals began to function as intermediaries between hearing and deaf primary interlocutors. Also, I analyze surviving records to discover the salient features in the work of untrained interpreters, given the limitations of a visual modality which could not have been precisely transcribed.

I maintain a record of research dissemination at anneleahy.com/pubs.