Rate My Professor Shani Tobias

Dr Shani Tobias is a Lecturer in Translation Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics within the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. She currently serves as the Education Coordinator of the Monash Intercultural Lab and was Director of the Master of Interpreting and Translation Studies from 2020 to 2023. Tobias earned her PhD from Monash University, with her doctoral research centered on Japanese-English literary translation, particularly the translation of metaphor in Tanizaki Jun’ichirō’s “Shisei” (The Tattooer). Her academic interests encompass Japanese-English translation, literary translation, translating metaphor, translating style, translating culture, and translation pedagogy. She supervises PhD projects in Translation Studies, focusing on translation pedagogy, literary translation, and Japanese-English translation.

Tobias has contributed significantly to translation scholarship through her publications and editorial work. She co-edited the book Encountering China's Past: Translation and Dissemination of Classical Chinese Literature (Springer, 2022, New Frontiers in Translation Studies series, 400 pages) with Lintao Qi, and co-presented a book talk on it in July 2022. Key recent publications include “Why do(n’t) interpreters do professional development?: Perceived barriers and benefits in the Australian context” (Interpreting, 27(2), 2025, with J. Hlavac, L. Sundin, S. Knowles, A. Avella Archila); “Translators’ and interpreters’ engagement with professional development in Australia: An analysis of key factors” (Translation and Interpreting, 16(1), 2024, with J. Hlavac et al.); “The formalisation of professional development amongst translators and interpreters: practices in five predominantly Anglophone countries with a focus on Australia” (T&I Review, 13(1), 2023, with J. Hlavac et al.); and “New prospects for international telecollaboration in translator training: a case study on Leeds-Monash collaboration” (chapter in Teaching Translation: Contexts, Modes, and Technologies, Routledge, 2025, with M. Ward). Other notable works are “Translation as Defamiliarization: Translating Tawada Yōko's Wordplay” (2020), “Translating hierarchy in Hideo Yokoyama's Six Four” (with L. Sundin), and “Culture-specific items in Japanese-English literary translations: comparing two translations of Kawabata's 'Izu no Odoriko'”. Her scholarship on Google Scholar has been cited 113 times. In 2010, she received Victoria’s Multicultural Awards for Excellence, shared with Rita Wilson.