Alice Richardson

Bio

Alice is a PhD candidate at Aston University. Her research background is in Forensic Linguistics, and her research interests focus on the impact that interpreters have on the UK judicial process. Her current research investigates the role of ‘monitor’ interpreters in asylum appeal hearings; when solicitors send their own interpreters to observe and interject if they believe court interpreters have made a mistake, a process which my supervisor at Aston University has coined ‘adversarial interpreting’. This process is borne out of many law firms’ experience with poor-quality interpreting services provided by the Ministry of Justice since they outsourced their interpreting contract in 2012. Alice observed this when she worked as an immigration caseworker and spoke to many solicitors, caseworkers, interpreters, and barristers who were concerned about the current provision of interpreting services and their effect on asylum outcomes. In her PhD she will be examining the linguistic and legal consequences of adversarial interpreting, which has never before been investigated. For instance, what role does a monitor interpreter play in the outcome of an asylum case, and therefore in a wider context, what impact do they have on access to Human Rights?

The title of Alice's PhD thesis is: Adversarial Interpreting in Asylum Appeal Hearings