On Tuesday 12 May at 4pm CET, we will be hosting this semester’s online lecture in the ID-TS Talk Series.
Lucile Davier and Elisa Ruckstuhl (University of Geneva) will be speaking about “Research journals as tools for project management and reflexivity in translation and interpreting studies”
The talk will be accessible to ID-TS members through Zoom
Abstract
In this talk, we offer insights into how research journals can support PhD students, thesis supervisors, and scholars for project management more broadly, and qualitative researchers in particular. We begin with an autoethnographic introduction in which we reflexively present our positionalities. We then present a concise literature review showing how journals have been used across various disciplines to stimulate learning, motivation, reflexivity, catharsis, and boost self-confidence. On the one hand, we highlight the common difficulties encountered in academic careers, both for PhD students and more experienced researchers, and we specifically emphasise the role of journals as tools for PhD students and their supervisors by drawing on examples from Elisa’s ongoing PhD research. On the other hand, we remind our colleagues of the importance of reflexivity in qualitative research and showcase the role of a research journal to provoke it. Examples from our practice show how scholars can use research journals to manage time, foster thinking, solve problems, and critically engage with their positionality. Finally, the talk adopts a more hands-on approach, allowing participants to try the journal-writing method by noting down current challenges and exploring potential solutions.
Lucile Davier is an assistant professor at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Translation and Interpreting (Switzerland). She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa, Canada (2016–2017), and a visiting scholar at the University of Leuven, Belgium (2012–2013). Her research interests include news translation, translation ethnography, non-professional translation, and research journals in translation studies.
Elisa Ruckstuhl is a PhD student at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Translation and Interpreting (Switzerland). In her doctoral project, she investigates the experience of master’s and PhD students who keep a research journal. She has been writing her own PhD research journal for around three years. Her research interests include research journals in translation studies, autoethnography, metacognition, self-regulation, and volunteer translation.
They are jointly organising the Life Writing and Translation conference in Geneva in June 2026 – an event that will bring together scholars and practitioners with a shared interest in various forms of life writing, such as research journals, translation memoirs, and learning diaries.
