Helen Vassallo

Associate Professor of French and Translation, University of Exeter
My two primary areas of research are literature in translation, and contemporary women's writing in French. My Translating Women research project, launched in 2018, brings together my interests in translated literature and women's writing. The aim of Translating Women is to engage with publishers, translators, booksellers, the media and readers in order to address intersectional gender bias within the publishing industry. This research led to my most recent book, Towards a Feminist Translator Studies: Intersectional Activism in Translation and Publishing (Routledge, October 2022), in which I develop a new critical model that works towards shifting paradigms in the translated literature sector of the publishing industry and presents a positive opportunity to address gender and interconnecting forms of bias. This research was also informed by my work with English PEN on the AHRC-funded network Changing the Landscape: Diversity and Translated Fiction in the UK Publishing Industry. The network brought together publishers, translators and academics to analyse and challenge connected forms of bias in the production and reception of translated fiction.

My recent translation work includes two plays by Darina Al Joundi, The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing and Marseillaise My Way (both released by Naked Eye Publishing), a collection of short stories and essays by Leïla Slimani, The Devil is in the Detail and other writings (Liverpool University Press, 2023) and Al Joundi's novel Prisoner of the Levant (Liverpool University Press, 2024). I am currently working on several other translation projects, including my role as project co-lead on translations of Ukrainian war poetry.

Other research interests

My early research resulted in two books on French author Jeanne Hyvrard, and highlighted my interest in the literary and autobiographical manifestations of social and physical conflict and trauma. Moving on from this, I began to focus on narratives of war, or of the transmitted legacy of war.

I have published several articles which focus specifically on literature in French which deals with the legacy of the Algerian War of Independence, as well as completing a British Academy-funded monograph titled The Body Besieged: The Embodiment of Historical Memory in Nina Bouraoui and Leïla Sebbar and an article on a previously unpublished text by the actor and playwright Rachid Akbal, written and performed to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Algerian independence from France.

My dual interest in gender and narratives of war also links in to my work on Lebanese playwright and actress Darina Al-Joundi, on whose critically acclaimed play Le Jour où Nina Simone a cessé de chanter I have published a number of articles.