Our Project

By reconstructing disinformation's multiple border crossings - temporal, linguistic, cultural - (Mis)translating Deceit (MD) will re-orient existing approaches to disinformation. It will interrogate common misconceptions about disinformation, treating it as a translingual, historically mutating phenomenon forged within the sociopolitically contingent realm of discourse.

Pinpointing the Russian node in a vast translingual network, we will create a model for identifying and combatting disinformation practices of diverse provenance. With impact at its core, MD proposes a potent interdisciplinary intervention, showcasing how humanities scholars can address major global challenges. Forging a cross-sectoral collaborative model involving leading academics, the UK's top think tank, Chatham House, a European disinformation monitor (EUDisinfoLab) and OFCOM, it draws on expertise in history, translation studies, audience research, media studies and security policy.

The project's linguistic scope combines languages paramount to the history and theory of disinformation - Russian, English, and German - with supplementary data in Arabic, Serbian, French, Spanish, and, potentially, Chinese. We will treat disinformation holisitically by tracing its shifts across borders of time and language, and the roles played by translation and counter-disinformation (e.g., fact checking) in shaping its meanings.

Outputs include a book, journal articles and stakeholder reports produced with policymakers.