Dr Jonathan Evans
- Reader (Translation studies)
email:
Jonathan.E.Evans@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns:
He/him/his
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9913-8207Biography
Before joining Glasgow as Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies in 2020, I held positions at the University of Exeter, the University of Hull and the University of Portsmouth. I was promoted to Reader in 2024.
Research interests
Situated in the critical humanities and drawing from cultural studies and comparative literature, my research analyses how people use translation. My first book, The Many Voices of Lydia Davis (Edinburgh UP, 2016), explores how Lydia Davis' translation practice intersects with her work as an author, particularly her responses to her translations and her use of translation as a form of composition. My interest in the wider, political uses of translation led me to co-edit the Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics with Fruela Fernandez (University of the Balearic Islands). A second edition of this handbook is in preparation, with the help of Mattea Cussel (UAB).
I have recently finished two large projects. The first is a book, co-written with Ting Guo (Liverpool), on Fan translation for Bloomsbury Fandom Primers. This book serves as an introduction to the topic and expands the field by exploring postcolonial and queer practices of fan translation, as well as reflecting on how fan translation has interacted with professional translation practice.
I have also recently finished leading a network project, Towards diversity, equality and sustainability in streaming, supported by the Fund for International Collaboration and the ESRC, which further explores the intersections of fandom, translation and media distribution, this time in relation to media exchanges between the UK and South Korea, with the goal of developing sustainable media practices. Bringing together scholars from the UK and South Korea working in film, media and translation studies, this project has led to engagement events in Busan, Seoul, Daegu and Glasgow as well as an academic conference in London. An edited volume based on this project is in preparation.
My current project is another monograph with Ting Guo, Translating Queer Cinema, which draws from and expands our AHRC funded Translating for Change project. It combines our exploration of the Chinese translation of Anglophone queer cinema in China with analysis of the translation of queer cinema from around the world in the UK and the USA. Through close readings of translations, interviews with translators, ethnography and paratextual analysis we challenge the notion of the 'global gay' and examine how translations of queer cinema always engage in negotiation of meaning and identities as part of their intervention in local debates.
Beyond subtitling, I am interested more widely in the intersections of translation, film and distribution. I have published research on film remakes as a form of translation which nevertheless complicates understandings of what constitutes translation. I have written about the American Breathless, Zhang Yimou's Blood Simple, and the lineage of Vertigo, La Jetee and 12 Monkeys, among other examples.
I am currently developing a new project on translation of counterculture which brings together questions of the translation of cultural and political ideas over languages and temporal distance.
Grants
- 2021 Principal investigator, 'Towards diversity, equality and sustainability in streaming: Translating British media in Korea and Korean media in the UK', Fund for International Collaboration and ESRC (£47500)
- 2018 Co-Investigator, ‘Translating for Change: Anglophone Queer Cinema and the Chinese LGBT+ Movement’, AHRC ECR grant (£248595)
- 2016 Co-Investigator, ‘Fan Translation in Viet Nam’, British Academy Newton Fund Mobility Grant (£9102)
- 2015 Co-Investigator, ‘Language service providers in the digital age’, University of Portsmouth Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences research fund (£13,000)
- 2015 Co-Investigator, ‘Musical fan communities: Connected across borders’, University of Portsmouth Interfaculty research fund (£6100)
Supervision
I would be happy to supervise research students working on topics related to my research:
- Literary translation; especially translation as a creative practice.
- Politics of translation
- Translation in film and media
- Creative/critical or practice led research on translation
- Gender and sexuality in relation to translation
- Translation as a fan activity
I am currently supervising or cosupervising students at Glasgow working on a range of topics including literary translation, queer media, and video game localisation. Please get in touch to discuss possible topics.
Please note I no longer have capacity to take students for 2025 entry and limited capacity for 2026 entry.
I am also available to supervise visiting PGR students. Please get in touch if you are interested.
Former students:
- Marjorie Huet-Martin (PhD, University of Portsmouth, 2024)
- Eugenia Lawrence (PhD, University of Portsmouth, 2021)
Current students:
- Mengxue Zhao
- Yifei Kong
- Yunjing Ouyang
- Menghui Zhang
- Rui Yang
- Donna Wilson
- Qing Guo
- Campello Gramelius, Misha
Feminine writing and translation in the works of Clarice Lispector, Ali Smith and Wendy Guerra - Jin, Yujia
Representations of the Italian Renaissance in the 21st Century: the Borgia and Medici Families stories on the small screen - Kong, Yifei
The Reception of Eugene O’Neill in China: Translations, Adaptations and Performances from the 1920s to the 1940s - Ouyang, Yunjing
English Translation of Hongloumeng and the Establishment of English Knowledge on China in the 19th Century - Wilson, Donna
Translating narratives of autism: an autoethnographic study.
Teaching
Classes I teach or contribute to at Glasgow include:
- Translation Studies in Theory and Practice
- Marketing and Translation Across Media
- Approaches to Translation and the Professional Environment
- Subtitling Film and TV
- Introduction to Translation Studies (UG)
- Modernities II (Critical Studies)
- Literary Translation
I also contribute to teaching on the Glasgow-Nankai Joint Graduate School MSc Translation Studies.
Additional information
I am deputy editor of The Journal of Specialised Translation (Impact Factor 2.061 [2020], SJR 0.95, Q1 Linguistics and Language [2023]).
I am on the editorial boards of:
I am core staff on the Baker Centre Media Translation and Digital Culture Research School.
I was a member of the AHRC Peer Review College from 2020-2023.
I regularly peer review manuscripts for leading international journals such as PMLA, Target, The Translator, Translation Studies, TTR, Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, Translation Spaces, Intralinea, The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, Paralleles, Journal of Internationalization and Localization, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, The Popular Culture Studies Journal, Literature Compass, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Genre and others. I also review proposals and manuscripts for presses such as Cambridge University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Bloomsbury Academic, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Presses Universitaires de Nancy, John Benjamins and others.
External examiner, MSc Translation Studies, University of Edinburgh, 2020-2024.
External examiner, MA Translation Studies, University of Birmingham, 2018-2022.
External examiner, MA Audiovisual Translation, University of Roehampton, 2017-2021.