Joke Daems

Joke Daems is assistant professor human-computer interaction in empirical translation & interpreting studies at Ghent university. They are a member of the EQTIS research team (Empirical and Quantitative Translation and Interpreting Studies) and the LT3 Language and Translation Technology team. Their research focuses on the impact of translation technology (such as machine translation) on translation (process, product, translator attitude) and society, with a recent focus on gender bias. They explored the potential of translation technology for literary translation and are currently mostly focused on gender-inclusive translations, with and without technology. 

They obtained a PhD in Translation Studies at Ghent University in 2016 as part of the ROBOT project, a comparative study of process and quality of manual translation and the post-editing of machine translations for students and professional translators. Data for this project were collected using keystroke logging and eye-tracking software, and were analysed using linear mixed effects models in R. In 2017, the thesis was awarded the CIUTI PhD Award.

As a postdoctoral researcher, Joke offered support to the Ghent Centre of Digital Humanities (GhentCDH) on a faculty level for three years, with a focus on digital language and text analysis. They were one of the elected representatives for academic staff in the faculty board for two years. 

As assistant professor, Joke is currently supervising projects related to structural priming in translation, gender bias detection, and gender-fair rewriting. Together with their PhD student Janiça Hackenbuchner, they launched the DeBiasByUs platform and Bias Shield browser plugin to raise awareness about gender bias in MT and collect instances of gender bias. Since 2023, they have been a member of the organising committee of GITT, the international workshop on Gender-Inclusive Translation Technologies. In their free time, they volunteer as Translation Manager at the International Quadball Association, where they encourage the use of inclusive language in all translations.

Joke has extensive experience as a reviewer for journal and conference articles and was external examiner of the PhD thesis of Arda Tezcan titled Informative quality estimation of machine translation output. They were guest editor of the Special Issue "Advances in Computer-Aided Translation Technology" of the peer-reviewed journal Informatics (2019), the special issue "Digital Approaches Towards Serial Publications" of the peer-reviewed Journal of European Periodical Sudies (2019), of the edited manuscript "New Empirical Perspectives on Translation and Interpreting" as part of Routledge's Advances in Translation Studies series (2019), and of a special issue on literary translation and technology, published online in Filter (2021).

Although mainly involved in research, they have taught numerous classes on translation technology, technical writing, and methodologies in translation studies. Current teaching responsibilities include the courses on Machine Translation & Post-Editing (CALM postgraduate), Terminology and Translation Technology (master in translation and Dutch & Translation postgraduate), Technical Writing (CALM postgraduate), and Ethics for Human-Centered AI (master in translation & CALM postgraduate). 

They are open to supervising bachelor and/or master's theses in the broader field of human-computer interaction within translation and interpreting studies as well as theses related to gender inclusivity and gender bias in translation.