James Hadley Ussher Assistant Professor in Literary Translation

James Hadley is Trinity’s Ussher Assistant Professor in Literary Translation. He is also the Director of the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation and Director of the MPhil in Literary Translation.

James teaches a wide range of modules at the postgraduate level, predominantly in the field of Translation Studies. His particular interests are translation theory and practice, especially when it comes to the interaction between humans and machines.

James’ research also centres on human-machine interaction in Translation Studies. He champions empirical and Digital Humanities methodologies in the field, using computer technologies to answer questions related to literary translation that were previously unaskable. Currently, much of James’ research attention is divided between the rapidly emerging fields of CALT (Computer Assisted Literary Translation), LMT (Literary Machine Translation), and the little researched topic of indirect translation (translations of translations).

Much of James’ research is not language-specific or traverses a wide range of language pairs. However, his main translation language pair is Japanese | English. In terms of translation practice, he has a particular interest in pre-modern and early modern Japanese literature. In 2021 he co-translated a collection of medieval Japanese poems.

James is based at the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, where he regularly organises events and activities aiming to broaden understanding about translation among the public. He also coordinates the Pratchett Project, which is a multi-university, multi-disciplinary research project on the life and works of the comic fantasy novelist, Terry Pratchett. This project brings together researchers from all fields, ranging from Literary Studies to Brain Science, Fan Studies to Topography, whose work intersects in some way with that of Terry Pratchett. Researchers from anywhere in the world interested in collaboration with the Pratchett Project are welcome to reach out to him.

James is actively recruiting doctoral and post-doctoral researchers specifically interested in the following topics:

· The interface between Digital Humanities and Translation Studies

· Computer Assisted Literary Translation

· Literary Machine Translation

· Indirect Translation

All of his doctoral and postdoctoral supervisees have been successful in acquiring the financial support they have required for their projects. James only supervises the most outstanding candidates with projects that make substantial contributions to human knowledge. Almost all of his supervisees previously took the MPhil in Literary Translation or worked with him in some other capacity before starting their projects. Candidates with outstanding proposals are asked to make contact with him by filling out this form. For other enquiries, James can be reached by emailing hadleyj@tcd.ie

Research Profile