Time/Date: Thursday, April 9, 2026 (6:00-7:00 pm)
Speaker: Stephanie Rodríguez, Rutgers University-Newark
Title: Translator Aptitude and Human-Computer Interaction
Zoom link: https://virginia.zoom.us/j/99309228124 Password: IWL
Sponsors: UVA’s Multilingual Outreach Volunteer Effort (MOVE) in collaboration with the Institute of World Languages
Description: In the current age of AI, translation practices are undergoing a significant shift, with implications not only for professional translators but also for bilinguals who translate in everyday community settings. This talk focuses on language brokering, particularly among U.S. Spanish–English bilinguals who routinely translate and interpret for family members and community stakeholders. The session introduces key concepts from research on translation aptitude and translation competence, with attention to how translation ability may emerge and vary outside formal training pathways.
The talk also presents an ongoing research project examining language brokers’ translation aptitude alongside their human–computer interaction with large language models (LLMs). The aim is to provide an overview of how bilingual translation is evolving in AI-mediated environments and to offer practical, research-informed guidance on responsible tool use, including common LLM error profiles, effective prompting and revision practices, and ethical considerations for community-facing, high-stakes communicative contexts.
Bio: Stephanie Rodríguez is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies and Director of Lives in Translation, the university’s Translation and Interpreting Program at Rutgers University-Newark. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Bilingualism and Second Language Acquisition at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and has been selected as a 2026-2027 Cheryl Wall Faculty Fellow.
Her research examines translation technologies and human–computer interaction, bilingual language development, and language brokering. Through her publications, she has explored human-centered AI in translation, translation pedagogy and community-engaged service-learning, and the syntactic and morphological development of bilingual speakers.
In 2025, she received the Rutgers Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching and was the Chancellor’s Scholar-in-Residence Fellow at Rutgers University-Newark. She is also a Co-curator of A Feeling of Itself, a multisite, multimedia, and multilingual exhibition that highlights the role of multilingualism and translation in the lives of Rutgers-Newark students, their families, and Newark communities.
Rodríguez is a translator and interpreter with experience as a court interpreter, an audiovisual translator, a medical translator and interpreter, and a translation technology specialist.