Have you ever heard of vicarious trauma? If you are not sure what it means, tune in to the nineteenth episode of Inclusioni, now online. Vicarious trauma is a phenomenon that stems from the empathetic engagement between someone in a helping profession—such as an interpreter—and those who have directly experienced a trauma. In contexts of severe suffering, such as illnesses and wars, this trauma also affects the very profession that, above all, gives a voice to those living through these experiences: interpreting.
We discuss this with Sara Polidoro, an interpreter and scholar at the Department of Interpreting and Translation of the University of Bologna. Sara Polidoro’s research project focuses on the impact of traumatic material on interpreters who assisted the Ukrainian population arriving in Italy due to the war.
The interview is conducted by Daniele Artoni, professor of Slavic Studies at our Department.