[TimorLesteStudies] Request re interpreters who have worked in East Timor

[Jennifer Drysdale]

Please reply to  <mailto:a.v.dijk.10 at nlda.nl>a.v.dijk.10 at nlda.nl

Project description "Language Management during Military Peace 
Support Operations"

The Netherlands Defence Academy is currently carrying out a 
PhD-research on language management during peace support operations. 
This research project intends to carry out an empirical analysis of 
the role of language and the intervention of military and local 
interpreters during employment. The role of language and the actions 
and interventions of interpreters are of eminent importance in 
expeditionary operations. Military units often need to operate in 
areas where the indigenous population does not (wish to) command 
western languages and servicemen themselves are unfamiliar with the 
local vernacular. Interpreters, whether military or embedded, are a 
powerful and indispensable source of knowledge and information when 
one needs to communicate with the local community and/or establish 
'situation awareness', HUMINT and 'force protection'.

With regard to this research I am looking for people who have been 
deployed as an an interpreter or worked with one during the operation 
in East Timor. If you can and are willing to contribute to this 
research, please contact me on: <mailto:a.v.dijk.10 at nlda.nl>a.v.dijk.10 at nlda.nl

Kind regards,

Andrea van Dijk (PhD-candidate)