Guildhall School of Business and Law staff profiles content store_hidden Peter Freeth Our staff

Peter completed a BA (Hons) in German at the University of Leeds in 2016, where he stayed to undertake an MA in Applied Translation Studies 2017 and a PhD, which he completed in 2022. Since completing his PhD, Peter has worked as a Teaching Fellow in Translation at both the University of Leeds (2021-22) and Aston University (2022-23), and provided external marking and supervision for German-speaking translation studies students at Goldsmiths, University of London (2022-23).

Peter is course leader for Translation BA, so teaches translation studies at all levels of this undergraduate programme. His current teaching covers first-year introductory modules in linguistics and cultural studies; second-year modules on practical translation and cultural approaches; and final year modules in translation theory and the extended translation project. He also supervises research dissertations in translation for students on the BA and MA programmes.

Peter's research has primarily focused on the ways that translators and translation are made visible in contemporary Anglophone culture, with a particular focus on sociological approaches and digital/social media. Common themes that span his research outputs are how translators can make themselves visible, how the visibilities of translation relate to the reception of translated texts, and how underlying systems of power both influence and are demonstrated through these (in)visibilities.

• Freeth, Peter J. (2024) Race and ethics in the translation classroom: Reflections on teaching the Amanda Gorman’s translators controversies as a white British lecturer. In: Teaching Translation – Contexts, Modes and Technologies, edited by Martin Ward, Carlo Eugeni and Callum Walker. London: Routledge.

• Zhang, Wenqian, Motoko Akashi and Peter J. Freeth. (2024) Locating the digital in literary translatorship. Translation in Society 3(1), pp. 1-16.

• Zhang, Wenqian, Motoko Akashi and Peter J. Freeth (eds). (2024) Literary translatorship in digital contexts. Special issue of Translation in Society, 3(1)

• Freeth, Peter J., and Rafael Treviño (eds). (2024) Beyond the Translator’s Invisibility: Critical Reflections and New Perspectives. Leuven: Leuven University Press. https://lup.be/collections/series-translation-interpreting-and-transfer/products/234877

• Freeth, Peter J. (2024) Introduction. In: Beyond the Translator’s Invisibility: Critical Reflections and New Perspectives, edited by Peter J. Freeth and Rafael Treviño, pp. 1-28. Leuven: Leuven University Press. Available open access: https://leuvenuniversitypress.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/BeyondTranslatorsInvisibility-Introduction-Freeth.pdf

• Freeth, Peter J. (2024). “Yes: I translated it!”: Visibility and the performance of translatorship in the digital paratextual space. In: Freeth, Peter J., and Rafael Treviño, eds. Beyond the Translator’s Invisibility: Critical Reflections and New Perspectives. Leuven: Leuven University Press, pp. 147-172. https://lup.be/collections/series-translation-interpreting-and-transfer/products/234877

• Freeth, Peter J. 2023. Peripheral vision and challenging invisibilities: Theoretical and methodological reflections on the “digitized turn” and “born-digital” sources in archives of translation and translators. Translation in Society 2(2), pp. 213-234. https://doi.org/10.1075/tris.23008.fre

• Freeth, Peter J. 2023. Between consciously crafted and the vastness of context: collateral paratextuality and its implications for translation studies. Translation Studies 16(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/14781700.2023.2194882

• Freeth, Peter J. (2022). Beyond invisibility: The position and role of the literary translator in the digital paratextual space. PhD thesis, University of Leeds. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/30818/

• Freeth, Peter J. 2021. “Germany asks: is it OK to laugh at Hitler?” Translating humour and Germanness in the paratexts of Er ist wieder da and Look Who’s Back. Translation Spaces 10(1), pp. 115-137. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/ts.20003.fre

• Freeth, Peter J. 2021. Conceptualising the role of the translator in the global circulation of literature: The case of Look Who’s Back and Jamie Bulloch’s translatorship. Trans: Revue de Littérature Générale et Comparée 16. http://dx.doi.org/10.4000/trans.6564 

Peter was awarded an Arts and Humanaties Research Council (AHRC) Competition PhD Studentship (2018-2022) for the project "Beyond invisibility: The position and role of the literary translator in the digital paratextual space".

In 2023, Peter was awarded the Martha Cheung Award for Best English Article in Translation Studies by an Early Career Scholar for the article ‘“Germany asks: Is it OK to laugh at Hitler?” Translating humour and Germanness in the paratexts of Er ist wieder da and Look Who’s Back’, published in Translation Spaces 10(1) (2021): https://www.sisubakercentre.org/martha-cheung-award-2023-winner-and-two-runners-up/ 

Peter serves on the editorial board of the journal Translation in Society as an an Assistant Editor.

Alongside his co-editor Rafael Treviño, Peter was interviewed by the New Books Network to discuss their edited volume "Beyond the translator's invisibility" and the interview is available as a podcast. https://newbooksnetwork.com/beyond-the-translators-invisibility

Dr Peter J Freeth
Senior Lecturer in Translation
Translation BA Course Leader
p.freeth@londonmet.ac.uk