Photo: Pekka Snellman's home album.
In his doctoral dissertation, Pekka Snellman examines ethical challenges in the professional practice of military interpreters and how these challenges can be addressed. His study shows that the professional ethics of military interpreters differ significantly from those of civilian interpreters, combining elements of both interpreting ethics and military ethics. Key factors in strengthening military interpreters’ ethical action competence include trust between military interpreters and their users, as well as ethics training tailored specifically to military interpreters. In addition, the development of language technology must be considered also from an ethical perspective. The findings of this dissertation will help improve the training of military interpreters and linguistic support for military operations.
The doctoral dissertation of Commander (General Staff), MA Pekka Snellman, in the field of Translation Studies, titled Challenges to military interpreters' ethical action competence in future armed conflicts, will be publicly examined at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University on 21 August 2026.
The Opponent will be Professor Elisabet Tiselius from Stockholm University, Sweden. The Custos will be Professor Kaisa Koskinen from the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University.