While I have worked across several fields in my eighteen years as a freelance translator and copyeditor, I currently focus on three specific areas: neurology and neuroscience, literary works, and academic writing—in other words, neurons, noetics, and nuance.
Neurons
My desire to write accurately and aptly has always been tied to my interest in science, particularly neuroscience. In addition to a BA in French, I did undergraduate research in a developmental neurobiology lab and spent my year abroad in France studying life sciences at Université de Montpellier II. As a translator and copyeditor, I actively seek out projects in the fields of neuroscience and neurology:
- Scientific articles on mirror neurons, yawning, stroke, computer-assisted neurosurgery, dysphasia, etc.
- Book-length biography of the nineteenth-century neurologist Georges Gilles de la Tourette
- Eighteenth-century case history of a rare sleep disorder
Noetics
The field of noetics offers one way of understanding how texts can reveal the ineffable. Such texts confront copyeditors and translators with many challenges but remain immensely rewarding. Committed to pursuing this type of work, in 2014 I completed an internship with Dalkey Archive Press, a US publisher specialized in the translation of contemporary literature, and in 2018 I obtained an MFA in Writing. Related fiction projects include the novels “Un mage en été” (“A Mage in Summer”) by Olivier Cadiot and “La vocation suspendue” (“The Suspended Vocation”) by Pierre Klossowski; poetry projects include the work of Jean de Breyne and Jean-Louis Giovannoni. I also copyedited a translation of “Elsa” (Louis Aragon) and the transcript for a documentary film on Le Corbusier. Currently, I am copyediting articles for “Religiographies,” an online journal for the academic study of religious phenomena.
Nuance
Academic writing and institutional communication both require getting the facts, data, and messaging across clearly and effectively, as many forms of expression must. What sets these fields apart is their ability to generate knowledge and create value by asking compelling questions. How does this nineteenth-century neurologist contribute to our understanding of multiple sclerosis? How does funding this anthropological fieldwork enhance our university’s image? The answers to these questions come down to exacting, nuanced knowledge and value, both of which foster comprehension and transmission. In my translation of academic works, such as two biographies and a monograph on Sufism, and in my copyediting of scientific articles, especially in the area of neuroscience, I focus on the details to capture the overall meaning. In other words, I help communicate outcomes and messaging through nuanced editing and translation.
Translation
