Graham H. Turner

Graham H. Turner joined the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies as Professor and Director of the Centre for Translation & Interpreting Studies in Scotland in October 2005, succeeding Emeritus Professor Ian Mason as Chair of Translation & Interpreting Studies. Having initially engaged with British Sign Language (BSL) as a classroom assistant at Northern Counties School for the Deaf in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1985 (and with a background in French, Greek, Latin, Swahili and Swedish), his first academic appointment was as Research Assistant, and then Fellow, at Durham University's Deaf Studies Research Unit from 1988-1995. Graham was Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire from 1995 until his appointment at Heriot-Watt in 2005.

Graham served as Director of Research in the School of Managament & Languages from 2009 to 2013 and was appointed to a Beltane Public Engagement Fellowship in 2014. He has edited international journals in Deaf Studies and in Translation & Interpreting Studies, and is a former elected Hon Secretary of the British Association for Applied Linguistics. Graham is the longest-serving member of the British Sign Language & Linguistic Access Working Group established by the Scottish Government, participating since its inception, and a member of the Scottish Council on Deafness management committee. He has advised the Scottish Government's Equality Unit and Parliament's Education & Culture Committee on BSL issues, and has a long history of invited expert input to the British Deaf Association, Signature and other key bodies.