Professor Samia Bazzi

Image of Samia Bazzi

Areas of interest

Professor Samia Bazzi is an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of Reading and Professor of Translation Studies and Linguistics at the Lebanese University. Her main areas of interest are critical discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, translation studies, and the relationship between language and politics. She is particularly interested in how language and translation shape the representation of political conflict, power, ideology and social actors in media and public discourse, with a focus on the Middle East.

Her research has contributed to the development of analytical models for examining language and ideology in news media, methodological frameworks for translation analysis, and pedagogical models for translator education. Her research has addressed political and social crises, including sectarianism, social cohesion and state failure, as well as the representation of conflict, terrorism and civilian victimhood. More recently, she has explored human agency in AI-assisted translation, particularly the ideological risks of machine-generated translations and the implications of artificial intelligence for translator education.

Her publications include the books Arab News and Conflict: A Multidisciplinary Discourse Study (John Benjamins, 2009) and Language in a Failed State: Public Discourse in the Lebanese Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), as well as articles in national and international academic journals and chapters in edited collections.

Alongside her research, she has extensive experience in teaching translation and continues to supervise doctoral researchers at the Lebanese University in sociolinguistics, language and politics, and related areas of discourse analysis.

Research centres and groups

  • Editorial Boards: inTRAlinea (University of Bologna) and Al-Hadatha (Beirut).
  • National Council for Scientific Research, Lebanon.
  • Research Committee, the Doctoral School of Literature, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Lebanese University.

Research projects

Samia is currently developing collaborative research initiatives exploring language, war and displacement in the Middle East. Her work seeks to connect research expertise at the University of Reading with the experiences and needs of conflict-affected communities, particularly in Lebanon. Drawing on discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and translation studies, these initiatives examine language narratives in contexts of conflict and displacement, with the broader aim of informing research-led policy discussions and contributing to peacebuilding efforts in the region.

Background

Before joining the Lebanese University, Samia Bazzi worked as an interpreter and translator for various organisations in Kuwait and Zambia. She also taught at the Lebanese American University and the American University of Science and Technology in Beirut. Her academic career has included keynote and plenary presentations at international conferences and regular academic engagement with Queen’s University Belfast over the years. She has received national recognition for her academic contributions, including the Excellence Award in Social Sciences and Linguistics from Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research and the Lebanese University Award for Distinguished Professors. In addition to her academic career, she is a sworn translator recognised by the Lebanese Ministry of Justice.

Professional bodies/affiliations

Lebanese University

  • Centre for Languages and Translation
  • Doctoral School of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences

Selected publications

  • Bazzi, S. (2026). Reconceptualizing translation pedagogy: Human agency in AI-enhanced Arabic–English translator training—An empirical case study. inTRAlinea, 28. https://www.intralinea.org/specials/article/2748
  • Bazzi, S. (2024). Language in a Failed State: Public Discourse in the Lebanese Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bazzi, S. (2024). Dubbing feminist discourse in Disney films for Arab audiences: Frozen as a case study. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 32(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2022.2052122
  • Bazzi, S. (2024). How can a CDA approach contribute to the study of state failure? In Language in a Failed State: Public Discourse in the Lebanese Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bazzi, S. (2024). Why has Lebanon become a failing state? In Language in a Failed State: Public Discourse in the Lebanese Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bazzi, S. (2024). How does the act of coining words and expressions help in the manufacture of failure? In Language in a Failed State: Public Discourse in the Lebanese Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bazzi, S. (2024). Measuring social cohesion in a failed state through the citizenry’s own evaluation and speech acts. In Language in a Failed State: Public Discourse in the Lebanese Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bazzi, S. (2024). How is a failed state perceived by its citizenry? A study of the metaphors that reveal these perceptions. In Language in a Failed State: Public Discourse in the Lebanese Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bazzi, S. (2022). Critical discourse analysis. In F. Zanettin & C. Rundle (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Methodology (pp. 155–171). Routledge.
  • Bazzi, S. (2021). Translation and (un)worthy victims. Language and Intercultural Communication, 21(3), 426–441.
  • Bazzi, S., & Shi, Y. (2020). The contribution of register analysis to the translation of Red Sorghum. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts, 6(3), 211–229.
  • Bazzi, S. (2019a). The non-translation strategy in translating ISIS radical discourse. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 7(2), 133–155.
  • Bazzi, S. (2019b). How can CDA unravel power relations in media representations of conflict in the Middle East? Transediting as a case study. Pragmatics and Society, 10(4), 584–612. https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.17015.baz
  • Bazzi, S. (2018). A model solution for English–Arabic–English translation students: A case study from the Lebanese University. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts, 4(2), 282–305.
  • Bazzi, S. (2017). Taste the Arabic Proverbs. Austin Macauley Publishers.
  • Bazzi, S. (2016). The role of translation in deconstructing and constructing sectarian discourses. In M. R. Martín & Á. Vidal Claramonte (Eds.), Traducción, medios de comunicación, opinión pública (pp. 73–98). Comares.
  • Bazzi, S. (2015). Ideology and Arabic translations of news texts. Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts, 1(2), 135–161.
  • Bazzi, S. (2014). Foreign metaphors and Arabic translation: An empirical study in journalistic translation practice. Journal of Language and Politics, 13(1), 120–151.
  • Bazzi, S. (2009). Arab News and Conflict: A Multidisciplinary Discourse Study. John Benjamins.

Publications

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