Dr Edward Clay PhD

Dr Edward Clay

Department of Modern Languages
Teaching Fellow in Translation Studies

Contact details

Address
Ashley Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Edward Clay is a Teaching Fellow in Modern Languages, teaching a range of modules in translation studies. He specialises in legal translation and translation technology. He has worked as a translator for many years and has had a number of fiction, non-fiction and audiovisual translations published. His research interests focus on empirical and interdisciplinary approaches to translation studies, examining the intersection between translation, law and linguistics.

Qualifications

  • BA/Hons French and Linguistics – University of Sheffield
  • MA Interpreting and Translation (French and Italian) – University of Bath
  • PhD in Translation Studies – University of Birmingham

Biography

I studied my undergraduate degree in French and Linguistics at the University of Sheffield. I then spent several years teaching English as a Foreign Language in various institutions and countries around the world, including France, Italy and Chile. I then returned to education to study for an MA in Interpreting and Translation (French and Italian) at the University of Bath. Upon successful completion of this course, I began working as a freelance translator and interpreter. I still work as a translator to this day in a wide variety of different fields and have had a number of fiction and non-fiction translations published. My most recent published translation is the play ‘The Land Beneath My Feet – translated from the original ‘Les Pieds Tanqués’ by Philippe Chuyen. I also specialise in legal and environmental texts. I returned to university once again to study for a PhD in Translation Studies at the University of Birmingham, where I completed my thesis entitled ‘Translation-induced language change in the field of migration: a multilingual corpus analysis of EU legal texts and press articles.’

Teaching

I teach on a number of modules on the MA in Translation (campus and distance), including:

  • Translating for Business
  • Translation Technology
  • Specialised Translation
  • Multimodal Translation
  • Professional development

Research

My research interests focus on empirical and interdisciplinary approaches to translation studies, examining the intersection between translation, law and linguistics. My PhD thesis examines the effect of translation-induced language change on terminology in the field of migration, with a multilingual corpus-based investigation of key term in EU legal texts and press articles. I have also published articles in international journals on law and language and corpus methods for examining translated legal texts.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Clay, E 2022, 'A Corpus-Based Approach to Examining Terminological Variation in EU Law', International Journal of Language & Law, vol. 11, pp. 142-162. https://doi.org/10.14762/jll.2022.142

Clay, E & McAuliffe, K 2021, 'Reconceptualising the Third Space of legal translation: a study of the Court of Justice of the European Union', Comparative Legilinguistics, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 93-126. https://doi.org/10.2478/cl-2021-0005

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Clay, E 2024, Language contact within an institutional ecosystem: The impact of EU translation. in M Dasca & R Cerarols (eds), Translation Studies and Ecology: Mapping the Possibilities of a New Emerging Field. 1st edn, Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies, Routledge, pp. 40-56.

Book/Film/Article review

Clay, E 2020, 'Book Review - Observing Eurolects: Corpus analysis of linguistic variation in EU law (2018) ed. Laura Mori', Languages, Texts and Society , pp. 1-5. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344248582_Book_Review_-_Observing_Eurolects_Corpus_analysis_of_linguistic_variation_in_EU_law_2018_ed_Laura_Mori>