Throughout March and April this year, Dr Caroline Williamson Sinalo from University College Cork’s French Department has been engaged in a Government of Ireland Academic Mobility at the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace (IRDP) () in Rwanda, working in collaboration with Dr Eric Ndushabandi. Together they are developing a collaborative project called: “Knowledge Production and Conflict in Africa: Language, Translation and Context”, targeting this year’s Irish Research Council (IRC) Collaborative Alliances for Societal Challenges (COALESCE) Research Fund. This strand, in partnership with Irish Aid, is for collaborative research with partner countries to promote policy development and build capacity.  

The Great Lakes Region of Africa (Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC) has long been an area mired in conflicts, many of which have deep historical roots. Shifting the focus away from the traditional subjects of research–those involved in the conflict–and instead shining a spotlight on those involved in producing knowledge about such conflict, this project will investigate the effects of language and translation, culture and context in academia and journalism. Taking the Great Lakes Region of Africa as a case study, the envisaged project will discursively analyze scholarly and journalistic articles, as well as interview data from researchers, journalists, translators, research assistants, and fixers, to meet the overall aim of determining the ways in which knowledge of ongoing conflict in Africa is generated. Through gaining an understanding some of the problematic issues surrounding knowledge production, their research findings can be used to improve such production, thereby contributing to a better understanding of conflict in the Great Lakes Region, and subsequently improving the allocation of resources, directly addressing UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – which aims to reduce “all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere”.  

Government of Ireland Academic Staff Mobility Programme 2018-19 

Funding Award to Dr Martin Howard, School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures 

Dr Martin Howard received a funding award within this year’s Government of Ireland Academic Staff Mobility in support of inter-institutional collaboration with two Asian universities, namely Duy Tan University in Da Nang, Vietnam and BINUS University in Jakarta, Indonesia. The funding will involve visits to both universities, and reflects areas of mutual interest in relation to foreign language learning where the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures offers a range of languages spanning the European and Latin American contexts (French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese), as well as Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese and Korean). Such languages are offered across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including the BA World Languages and BA International, and include the study of both the languages and cultures of a wide range of countries.  

The project integrates the key focus of the Government of Ireland Academic Staff Mobility Programme, reflecting the overarching principle of Irish Government’s International Education Strategy, ‘Irish Educated, Globally Connected’, “Internationalisation of education can be described as a comprehensive approach to education that prepares students, academics and staff to be active and engaged participants in an interconnected global world.” Against this background, the programme builds on a range of strategies in various national policies such as the Action Plan for Education 2016-2019 and Languages Connect: Ireland’s Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017-2022.  

In particular, the project here will explore inter-institutional partnerships, and will include a number of guest lectures and seminar by Dr Howard for staff and students at Duy Tan University and BINUS University. These will focus on issues in foreign language learning, reflecting Dr Howard’s research in second language acquisition. The project builds on Dr Howard’s interests in study abroad, where he is Chair of the European transnational COST Action, ‘Study Abroad in European Perspective’, 2016-2020, and founding Editor of the journal, Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, published by Benjamins (Amsterdam / Philadelphia).