Professor; Program Chair, Translation, Translation and Interpretation, Conference Interpretation
As a high-school exchange student in France, Julie Johnson experienced the distress of getting off the plane and hardly understanding a word. By the end of that year, she had earned her baccalauréat French secondary degree with honors.
She went on to study international relations and French at University of California, Davis. On a social-justice learning trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico she experienced interpreted communication first hand and was captivated: the interpreter was absolutely pivotal and yet a fly on the wall, able to observe and learn. This greatly appealed to Julie as both a livelihood and way of being in the world.
After another stint in France, Julie earned a Masters in French Translation and Interpretation here at the Middlebury Institute, and has worked as a professional translator and interpreter ever since. She primarily interprets for executive seminars, governmental missions and legal proceedings; translates legal, financial, and technical documents; and offers trainings for court interpreters and government linguists.
Julie also started teaching at the Institute and serving on the boards of the Northern California Translators Association and the American Translator’s Association. In 2009, she undertook a doctorate in Learning and Instruction at University of San Francisco as a way of further underpinning and enriching her teaching practice. In 2014 she received the Leslie Eliason Excellence in Teaching Award.
Much of Julie’s current research and activities are motivated by a desire to support students through the difficult and often humbling process of developing professional competence. Along the way she has examined and extended Cognitive Load Theory as it applies to interpreting and other cognitively-demanding performative tasks. In this context, Julie has brought mindfulness training to the curriculum at MIIS, to the Summer Language Schools at Middlebury College, and to the Bread Loaf Orion and Translators conferences.
Professor Johnson has been teaching at the Institute since 1988.
| by Jason Warburg
Conference Interpretation graduate Ioana Lobontiu recently passed the accreditation exam for the European Union (EU) and is looking forward to interpreting for EU institutions as she begins the next phase of her career.
| by Jason Warburg
Middlebury Institute students Andrew Belisle MACI ’23 and Leilani Padilla-Young MATI ’22 both recently passed the notoriously difficult Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination, qualifying them to serve as interpreters in any federal courtroom.
| by Dawnielle Jacobson MAT '14
Translation alumna Dawnielle Jacobson describes how networking, internships, and support from MIIS faculty and staff helped her get started as a freelance translator.
