Professor Emma Tyler

Emma is based in Modern Languages and has a background in French Studies. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Birmingham and the Université de Bourgogne in France, and her doctoral research, on women's writing in Renaissance France, at the University of Birmingham in 1999, working under the supervision of Professor Jennifer Birkett.

Latterly, Emma specialised in Translation Studies, receiving a personal chair in Translator Education in 2020. She holds the Institute of Linguists' Diploma in Translation (2001). In August 2015, she was awarded a Senior Fellowship at the Higher Education Academy.

Professor Tyler teaches French language at all levels and specialist modules on translation theory and practice.

Professor Tyler currently supervises the following postgraduates:

• Abrar Abdulrhman Abulnassr, Tracking problem solving strategies and time as indicators of translation competence acquisition across different proficiency levels.
• Ali Alqahtani, Assessing the relevance of Saudi undergraduates’ translation competence to the requirements of the Saudi translation market.
• Mohammed Aldosari, Understanding Linguistics features as emotional and sense of self stimulators in Tourism Promotion : A Corpus-Based Investigation of Translated Tourism Texts
• Ahmed Alharbi, A Comprehensive Approach to the Translation of Figures of Comparison in Contemporary Self –Help Genre
• Yaru Chen, English Translation of Traditional Chinese Medical Classic Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen: A Corpus-based Pragmatic Study
• Sara Corpino, The translation of dialects: Atzeni’s language in English and French
• Lucia Antonia Dino-Guida, A synchronic screenshot of ‘in-tune’ cultures – investigating song translation in Italian dubbed Animated Musical Comedies

Students who have been awarded their PhD:

• Mohammed Saleh (awarded 2018): The Assessment of the Role of Interpreters in Influencing Narratives of the Libyan Conflict
• Mary Bardet (awarded 2020): Adapting, abridging and rewriting: The French translations of E. Nesbit’s work (1906- 2017)
• Xiaolong Tang (awarded 2020): Using Technology to Facilitate Students Learning Chinese Characters

Find out more - our PhD French Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

In 2008, while conducting research into the history of Thorngrove House in Worcestershire on behalf of its owner, Emma became interested in Lucien Bonaparte and his wife Alexandrine, who made their home there as prisoners of war during the Napoleon Wars. In 1804, Lucien had been sent into exile in Italy by his brother Napoleon. In 1810, as relations worsened, he attempted to flee to the US, but was captured by the British. He, his wife and children, his retinue and servants were held as 'prisoners' in England for the next four years, firstly in Ludlow and then at Thorngrove.

In 2015, Emma co-edited, with her colleague Andrew Watts, a book to commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo. Fortunes of War: The West Midlands at the Time of Waterloo explores some of the little-known connections between West Midlands and Waterloo, and was published by History West Midlands in the summer of 2015. The collection contains an article written by Emma on Lucien and Alexandrine's time as prisoners of war.

More recently, Emma has returned to this theme and is currently working on a larger project examining Lucien and Alexandrine's marriage in exile, and their relationship with England. The work draws upon the couple's own writings, and archival material held in England, France and Italy.