Aída
Martínez-Gómez
Associate Professor
Phone number
212.621.3755
Room number
7.65.07NB
Education

PhD in Translation and Interpreting Studies. University of Alicante, Spain

BA in Translation and Interpreting (English/French-Spanish). University of Alicante, Spain

Bio

Aída Martínez-Gómez, Associate Professor of Legal Translation and Interpreting, holds a PhD in Translation and Interpreting Studies from the University of Alicante (Spain). Her main research interests focus on interpreting in prison settings (including language policy and planning, treatment for foreign incarcerated offenders, and the particularities of bilingual prisoners acting as interpreters), non-professional interpreting and child language brokers, interpreting pedagogy for heritage learners, and interpreting quality assessment. Her works have been published in international journals such as Interpreting, Perspectives, International Journal of the Sociology of Language and Babel, among others.

Prof. Martínez-Gómez’s areas of teaching expertise are legal translation and court interpretation. She has taught at the University of Alicante and the Monterey Institute of International Studies. At John Jay College, she is the Coordinator for the BA in Spanish and Certificate Programs in Legal Translation and Interpretation and teaches introductory to advanced courses within these programs.

Prof. Martínez-Gómez is certified as Spanish Interpreter by the New York State Unified Court System and as English Sworn Translator and Interpreter by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has worked in this capacity for the Spanish Secretary General for Correctional Institutions, the British Ministry of Justice, and several international law firms such as Ollé & Sesé (Madrid), Loeb & Loeb (Chicago), and Peters & Peters (London), among others. She also collaborates pro-bono as an interpreter and interpreter trainer with several non-profit organizations (New Sanctuary Coalition, Her Justice).

JJC Affiliations
BA in Spanish; Certificates in Legal Translation & Interpretation.
Courses Taught
  • SPA 230 Translating I
  • SPA 231 Interpreting I
  • SPA 330 Translating II
  • SPA 333 Interpreting II
  • SPA 340 Legal Interpreting I
  • SPA 435 Legal Translating
  • SPA 440 Legal Interpreting II
  • SPA 478 Internship in Translation and Interpreting
  • SPA 201 Intermediate Spanish I

 

Professional Memberships

Prof. Martínez-Gómez is the Vice-President of NAJIT’s Society for the Study of Translation and Interpreting (the non-profit educational and research foundation of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators) and a Member-at-large of the Executive Board of the American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association (ATISA).

She is also a member of the European Society of Translation Studies (EST), the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS),  the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), and the Asociación Ibérica de Estudios de Traducción e Interpretación (AIETI).

Scholarly Work

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2018). Language, translation and interpreting policies in prisons: Protecting the rights of speakers of non-official languages. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 251, 151-172. Special issue: Translation Policies and Minority Languages, edited by M.-S. Córdoba Serrano & O. Diaz Fouces.

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2017). Language rights and interpreting services in Spanish prisons. Babel: Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation, 63(6), 813–834.

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2016). Facing face: Non-professional interpreting in prison mental health interviews. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(1), 93–115. Special issue: Non-professional interpreting and translation: translational cultures in focus, edited by F. Evrin & B. Meyer

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2015). Invisible, visible or everywhere in between? Perceptions and actual behaviors of non-professional interpreters and interpreting users. The Interpreters’ Newsletter, 20, 175-194. Special issue: Dialogue Interpreting, edited by E. Dal Fovo & N. S. A. Niemants. http://hdl.handle.net/10077/11859

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2015). Bibliometrics as a tool to map uncharted territory: A study on non-professional interpreting. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 23(2), 205-222. Special issue: Bibliometric and Bibliographical Research in Translation Studies, edited by S. Rovira-Esteva; P. Orero & J. Franco Aixelá.

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2014). Interpreting in prison settings: An international overview. Interpreting: International journal of research and practice in interpreting, 16(2), 233–259.

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2014). Criminals interpreting for criminals: breaking or shaping norms? JoSTrans: The Journal of Specialized Translation, 22, 174-193. http://www.jostrans.org/issue22/art_martinez.php

Peer-reviewed book chapters

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2019). Non-Professional Interpreting. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha (Eds.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (pp. 370-375). New York: Routledge. 3rd ed.

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2015). Interpreting quality in prison settings: a proposal for an assessment tool. In: C. Zwischenberger & M. Behr (Eds.), Interpreting Quality: A look around and ahead (pp. 205-230). Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2015). Non-professional interpreters. In H. Mikkelson & R. Jourdenais (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Interpreting (pp. 417-431). New York: Routledge.

Martínez-Gómez, A. (2015). Prison settings. In F. Pöchhacker (Ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Interpreting Studies (pp. 320-321). New York: Routledge.

Honors and Awards

Distinguished Teaching Prize. John Jay College of Criminal Justice. March 2018.

Distinguished Service to Students Award. John Jay College of Criminal Justice. March 2016.

Research Summary

Prof. Martínez-Gómez is an interpreting scholar who focuses on issues of linguistic justice affecting highly vulnerable populations, such as incarcerated offenders and child interpreters. One facet of her research explores language policy in multilingual and multicultural prison systems, where communication barriers hinder rehabilitation purposes and put minority language-speaking inmates at higher psychological risk. A second facet looks at the experiences and behaviors of “non-professional” interpreters (i.e., bilingual individuals who translate orally on an ad hoc basis without specific training or payment for their services), mainly prisoners who translate for other inmates, and children and young adults of immigrant backgrounds who translate for their families and communities. Recently, she has started an project with Prof. Rebecca Weiss (Psychology Dpt, JJC) to develop best practices for interpreting in mental health contexts, funded by a CUNY Interdisciplinary Research Grant (2019-2020).