‘Caring’ Through Translation: A Dialogue on Ethics and Inclusivity in Cross-Language Research

Abstract

Cross-language research involving translation is prevalent in the social sciences yet under-discussed in terms of its ethical impact on participants or the translator her/himself. This paper applies a feminist ethics of ‘care’ to the topic of translation in cross-cultural, cross-language research. We argue for the importance of emotional intelligence and awareness of emotional labor involved in meaningful, ethical translation between the researcher, translator, and participants. The paper itself is a reflexive conversation between a translator and researcher following six months of data collection involving over 120 interviews and 10 work-life histories. We discuss the opportunities and limitations for more emotionally evolved translation in cross-cultural research, discussing specific strategies for caring about, taking care of, caregiving and care receiving through translation. Applying the ‘caring through translation’ framework promotes deeper collaboration and relationality between researchers, translators, and participants, grounded in feminist ideals of equitable, ethical knowledge production.