Prof Michael Cronin's research

Michael Cronin receives the 2001 President's Research Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences for his outstanding contribution to the field of Translation Studies. Over the last decade or so, Michael Cronin has been one of the most significant scholars in translation studies in Europe.

Dr Cronin has published three recent books that investigate how language, especially other people's language, and tensions between languages, affects the way we experience ourselves and the world. In Translating Ireland, Dr Cronin explores the vital role translation played in the political, cultural and linguistic development of Ireland from the Middle Ages right through to the 20th century. In Across the Lines, published in 2000, he probes the role language plays in contemporary encounters between travellers and their hosts around the globe, and in fictionalised accounts of extraterrestrial travel. His most recent work, Translating Tomorrow: Translation, Technology and Interculturality in a Global Age, looks to the future.

Speaking at the Awards the President, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski praised Dr Cronin's campaign for linguistic diversity. "Dr Cronin is wary of the kind of facile multiculturalism that would have everyone speaking and being spoken to in the same language. He has made us look seriously at how language has helped define our political and cultural histories and more importantly how it contributes to our national identity through tourism, literature and cultural characteristics."

• Dr Cronin's scholarly achievements have already been celebrated in:
  Canada, where, in the past two years he has been awarded the Prix du Québec, and the CATS Vinay Darbelnet Prize for best translation studies book;
• Peru, where he was made Honorary Professor at the Universidad Ricardo Palma, Lima in 2001; and in
• Ireland, where in 2000 he was awarded an Albert College Senior Fellowship by this University.

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Dr Patrick McNally's research