Dr TODOROVA, Marija
博士
Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies
Contact
ORCiD
0000-0003-4709-2988
Phone
(852) 2948 7190
Email
mtodorova@eduhk.hk
Address
10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong
Scopus ID
57200811560
ResearcherID
O-5781-2017
Research Interests
Crisis Translation, Community Translation, Intercultural Mediation, Children and Young Adults Literature; Participatory Research Methods
Teaching Interests

Dr Todorova's teaching interests center on Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication, with a strong focus on integrating theory with practice through student‑centered and experiential approaches. She has completed professional training in Service‑Learning Pedagogy and Practice as well as SEN, Disability and Equality in Higher Education, which informs her commitment to accessible and inclusive classrooms for students of diverse backgrounds and abilities. Drawing on extensive international teaching experience she has developed innovative courses and led collaborative translation workshops resulting in published student volumes and digital projects. For her commitment to advancing holistic education, she has received a Fellowship from the International Holistic Competency Foundation, a recognition that reinforces her dedication to fostering well-rounded, meaningful learning experiences that go beyond academics.

 

External Appointments

Fellow of the International Holistic Competency Foundation (2025-2027)

Visiting Scholar, The Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE) of the Department of English and Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Peer College, Martha Cheung Award, CTN, HKBU

Visiting Faculty, Nida School of Translation Studies, San Pellegrino University Foundation (2019)


Journal Editorship

Chief Editor, New Voices in Translation Studies [Scopus top 5%]

Guest Editor 2028, Target [Q1]

Guest Editor 2027, Translation and Interpreting [Scopus top 2%]

Guest Editor 2021, Linguistica Antverpiensiа [Q1]


Editorial Board 

Advisory Board on Translation, International Research in Children’s Literature [Q1]

Editorial Board, Hieronimus, University of Zagreb

Advisory Board, International Journal of Language, Literacy and Translation (IJoLLT)


External Research Grant Evaluator

Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies

Irish Research Council

European Research Council



Other Activities

International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), Outreach Committee Chair, 2020-


International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), Executive Board, 2010-


International Community Translation Research Group


Eco-Translation Research Network




Personal Profile

Marija TODOROVA completed a PhD in English Language and Literature at the Hong Kong Baptist University and a PhD in Peace and Development Studies at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Her research is published in monographs, edited volumes, and highly impactful refereed academic journals. Her monograph, Translation of Violence in Children’s Literature: Images from the Western Balkans (2022), is an innovative interdisciplinary study integrating translation studies, visual semiotics, and imagology to explore representations of violence for young audiences.


Dr Todorova is one of the leading scholars in the area of language and translation in crisis contexts, specifically focusing on conflict and disaster. She has co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Translating and Interpreting Conflicts (2026), Interpreter Training in Conflict and Post-conflict Scenarios (2023), and Interpreting Conflict: A Comparative Framework (2021). In her research she has been rethinking development through participatory approaches, co-editing special issues in  Linguistica Antverpiensiа (2021), Translation and Interpreting (2027) and Target (2028). She has received competitive research grants to do work across continents, including Western Balkans, Hong Kong and Malawi. She is also an active member of several international research networks and participants in international research projects.


Dr Todorova is Vice Co-President of the International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) and Chief Co-Editor at New Voices in Translation Studies, a leading journal in the field of Translation Studies (Scopus top 5%).


Native in Macedonian, she works in English, Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian. She also has a basic command of Albanian, Spanish, German, French and spoken Cantonese. She has translated over a dozen works of literature, including books by J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Philip K. Dick, Eoin Colfer, and Dick King-Smith, and received the National Translation Prize in 2007. As part of a collaborative team, she has translated Macedonia, Bosnian and Serbian poetry into Chinese.


Prior to her academic work, Dr Todorova has worked with several leading international and national development organizations, including UNHCR, UNDP, the OSCE, the UK Department for International Development (DfID), and the European Community Monitoring Mission (ECMM).


For more check my personal website.


Research Interests

Crisis Translation, Community Translation, Intercultural Mediation, Children and Young Adults Literature; Participatory Research Methods
Teaching Interests

Dr Todorova's teaching interests center on Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication, with a strong focus on integrating theory with practice through student‑centered and experiential approaches. She has completed professional training in Service‑Learning Pedagogy and Practice as well as SEN, Disability and Equality in Higher Education, which informs her commitment to accessible and inclusive classrooms for students of diverse backgrounds and abilities. Drawing on extensive international teaching experience she has developed innovative courses and led collaborative translation workshops resulting in published student volumes and digital projects. For her commitment to advancing holistic education, she has received a Fellowship from the International Holistic Competency Foundation, a recognition that reinforces her dedication to fostering well-rounded, meaningful learning experiences that go beyond academics.

 

External Appointments

Fellow of the International Holistic Competency Foundation (2025-2027)

Visiting Scholar, The Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE) of the Department of English and Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Peer College, Martha Cheung Award, CTN, HKBU

Visiting Faculty, Nida School of Translation Studies, San Pellegrino University Foundation (2019)


Journal Editorship

Chief Editor, New Voices in Translation Studies [Scopus top 5%]

Guest Editor 2028, Target [Q1]

Guest Editor 2027, Translation and Interpreting [Scopus top 2%]

Guest Editor 2021, Linguistica Antverpiensiа [Q1]


Editorial Board 

Advisory Board on Translation, International Research in Children’s Literature [Q1]

Editorial Board, Hieronimus, University of Zagreb

Advisory Board, International Journal of Language, Literacy and Translation (IJoLLT)


External Research Grant Evaluator

Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies

Irish Research Council

European Research Council



Other Activities

International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), Outreach Committee Chair, 2020-


International Association of Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS), Executive Board, 2010-


International Community Translation Research Group


Eco-Translation Research Network




Research Outputs
Scholarly Books, Monographs and Chapters
Chapter in an edited book (author)
Chung, C. K. M., & Todorova, M. (2026). Myths of “Prisoners of War” and Prospects for Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. Gardei, E., Gymnich, M., Schwall, C., & Soeffner, H-S., Images of War Captivity from 1870 to the Present (249-268). De Gruyter Brill. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112243589-013
Todorova, Marija (2025). Memories of war: Using life writing and documentary film in the research on interpreters and translators in conflict. Marija Todorova, & Lucia Ruiz Rosendo, The Routledge Handbook of Translating and Interpreting Conflict (498-510). Routledge.
Todorova, Marija (2025). Field Research on Translation and Interpreting. Regina Rogl, Daniela Schlager and Hanna Risku, Lives in translation Listening to the voices of asylum seekers (320-337). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.165.14tod
Todorova, Marija (2025). War zones, conflict, and violence in translated children's literature. Michał BORODO, Jorge DÍAZ‑CINTAS, The Routledge handbook of translation and young audiences (186-198). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003291169-16
Todorova, Marija (2024). Translation and emergency. Sergey TYULENEV, Wenyan LUO, The Routledge handbook of translation and sociology (383-399). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003340843-30
Todorova, Marija (2024). Living in limbo: Translation in Hong Kong narratives of asylum in the digital space. Brigid MAHER, Loredana POLEZZI, Rita WILSON, The Routledge handbook of translation and migration (293-305). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003287797-23
Todorova, Marija & Liu, Rachel Hang Yi (2024). The Use of MT in Humanitarian NGOs in Hong Kong. Carolina Scarton, Charlotte Prescott, Chris Bayliss, Chris Oakley, Joanna Wright, Stuart Wrigley, Xingyi Song, Edward Gow-Smith, Mikel Forcada, & Helena Moniz, Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the European Association for Machine Translation, EAMT 2024 (51-52). European Association for Machine Translation.
Edited book (editor)
M. Todorova, & L. Ruiz Rosendo (2025). The Routledge Handbook of Translating and Interpreting Conflict. Routledge.

Journal Publications
Publication in refereed journal
Todorova, M., & Ruiz Rosendo, L. (2026). Bridging linguistic and cultural divides: institutional and interpersonal trust in interpreting the humanitarian crisis in Malawi. Perspectives, 0(0), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2026.2637004
Todorova, M., Mwale, S., & Liu, R. (2026). Language hierarchies and community resilience: sociolinguistic analysis of multilingual disaster communication in rural Malawi. Linguistics Vanguard, 0(0), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2024-0232
Poposki, Z., & Todorova, M. (2026). Worldbuilding, narrative, and agency in the intersemiotic translations of ‘The Witcher’. Translation Spaces, 0, 0. https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.23053.pop
Todorova, Marija (2024). Cosmopolitan solidarity in crises: Volunteer translation as a prosocial collective action. Translation and Interpreting, 16(2), 40-53. https://doi.org/10.12807/ti.116202.2024.a04
Todorova, M. (2022). The role of translation in environmental protection: An inclusive approach. The Translator, 28(4), 415-428. https://doi.org/10.1080/13556509.2022.2159282
Todorova, M. (2022). Translating refugee culinary cultures Hong Kong's narratives of integration. Translation and Interpreting Studies, 17(1), 88-110. https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.21019.tod
Todorova, M. (2021). The Western Balkans in translated children’s literature: Location-dependent images of (self)representation. Translation Spaces, 10(1), 94-114. https://doi.org/10.1075/ts.20011.tod

Conference Papers
Invited conference paper
Todorova, M (2025, December). Keynote: Digital Humanitarianism: AI, Translation, and Intercultural Mediation in the "Global South". Academic Symposium on Translation and International Communication in the New Era, Xi'an.
Todorova, M. (2025, October). Innocence Interrupted: Children Bearing Witness to War. Intergenerational Pedagogies of Remembrance: Arts, Curatorship and Youth Participation, Wroclaw.
Todorova, Marija (2025, September). Keynote: What voices are we leaving behind in the AI revolution?. XXIII FIT World Congress: Mastering the Machine: Shaping an Intelligent Future, Geneva.
Refereed conference paper
Liu, R., & Todorova, M. (2025, December). Translation As A Bottom‑Up Tool For Environmental Peacebuilding: Empowering Marginalized Voices And Bridging Gaps. 8th International Association for Translation & Intercultural Studies (IATIS) Conference, Muscat.
Todorova, Marija & Ruiz Rosendo, Lucia (2025, July). Training non-professional interpreters for cyclone-affected population in Malawi. 11th EST Congress: The Changing Faces of Translation and Interpreting Studies, Leeds.

All Other Outputs
Journal editor ('editorial membership' should be excluded)
Ruth Abou Rached, David Charlston & Marija Todorova (2020). New Voices in Translation Studies. Bangkok: IATIS.
Other outputs
Baley, M., Moorkens, J., & Todorova, M. (2026). Translation Panel: Is AI Use Changing the Role of Translators? Implications for Education, Culture and Ethics. online: Study Group on Language and the Unated Nations.

Projects
Translating Care: Human-Centered Practice in Community Translation and Interpreting in Hong Kong
This project investigates how the emotional affective dimensions of translation and interpreting can inform more equitable and human centered multilingual communication in humanitarian and crisis contexts increasingly mediated by artificial intelligence. While digital tools such as AI translation and chatbots offer speed and efficiency, they also introduce new challenges: emotional disconnection, ethical opacity, and the risk of amplifying linguistic or cultural bias.

Project Start Year: 2026, Principal Investigator(s): TODOROVA, Marija
SDGs Information: 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, 10 - Reduced Inequality
 

Collective Remembrance: Engaging Youth Through Curatorial Practices
The research project aims to produce intergenerational and youth-led collective remembrance about war, mobilizing the memory of the Holocaust to address and document other histories of violence.

Project Start Year: 2025, Principal Investigator(s): Macarena Garcia Gonzale (TODOROVA, Marija as Co-Principal Investigator)
SDGs Information: 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
 

Examining Translation and Interpreting as Inclusion: Language Use in Hong Kong’s Development Aid to Africa
The study aims to move forward the theoretical debate on the role of translation in development studies, defining development practice as semiotic adaptation to a changing environment which as such entails a translational dimension. More specifically, the study examines the linguistic inclusion of Malawian communities in Hong Kong development aid through the use of translation and interpreting.

Project Start Year: 2024, Principal Investigator(s): TODOROVA, Marija
SDGs Information: 10 - Reduced Inequality, 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
 

Knowledge Transfer Activities
Staff Engaged as Professional Consultants or Members of External Advisory Bodies
Grassroots Future Board of Directors
Date: 2024-01-01