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Website of Michael En

Welcome :)

Hello, I’m Michael En, BA MA

I’m a queer-feminist translator/​academic/​activist not fond of such labels, engaging in various activities doing too many things at the same time. Currently, I’m mostly involved with work™ (see belowright) and completing my PhD at the University of Vienna.

I live, among other places, in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Japanese. At the moment, I spend most of my being and doing in Vienna, Austria.

I prefer cats to dogs, tea to coffee, and hoodies to sweatshirts. I enjoy doing cryptic crossword puzzles, singing not only in the shower, and listening to radio plays. I miss Vine but sometimes binge on TikTok.

Between ideals of beauty and boxes of chocolate, I try to do what I can to make the world a better place. Maybe relatedly, I sigh a lot. This website is meant as a glimpse into (some happenings in) my life.

Work™
– or: ‘So what do you do?’

Go to the Qwir website.

In 2017, I co-founded Qwir text + design, a text, translation and design agency for people in academia, activist organisations and other areas of life. Based in Vienna, we offer:

  • translation (to and from en and de)
  • editing & proofreading
  • layout & formatting
  • web & graphic design
  • workshops & training
  • and more

In all our work, we try to encourage what’s good in the world. For Qwir, that means taking a perspective of social awareness, a focus on accessibility, and an overall approach that, in text and design, treats people and the world we live in with kindness.

Academia & research

‘So what do you do?’, university edition:

Research areas & interests

My academic work focuses on and has been shaped by:

  • transcultural communication
  • global & local language power relations
  • translation
  • lingualism
  • critical sociolinguistics
  • discourse analysis
  • native-speakerism
  • stereotype threat
  • gender & sexuality
  • queer theory

And, maybe most importantly: etc.

Academic profiles

You can follow my research on:

Upcoming publications

There are a few publications I’m currently working on that I’m not allowed to mention here yet, but I’m happy to announce that the following is scheduled to come out soon(ish):

  • En, Boka & En, Michael (forthcoming 2021). (Un)doing relationships: Boundary-Drawing and Queer(ing) Ways of Relating. In Rees, Emma (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Sexuality and Culture. Routledge.

Recent publications

I try to make my texts as accessible as possible. If you cannot access a text that you are interested in, please let me know.

  • En, Michael (ed.) (2020). Truths, trust and translation. A festschrift, love letter and thank you to Michèle Cooke. Peter Lang.
    • Text, teas and thank yous: An Einleitung. 7–9
    • Of bullet points and cows: Illuminating truths and truisms. 17–33.
  • En, Boka & En, Michael (2020). Beziehung(s)formen im queeren Alltag. In Michel Raab & Cornelia Schadler (Eds.), Polyfantastisch? Nichtmonogamie als emanzipatorische Praxis. Unrast.
  • En, Michael & En, Boka (2019). “Coming out”… as a translator? Expertise, identities and knowledge practices in an LGBTIQ* migrant community translation project. Translation Studies, 1–18. doi: 10.1080/14781700.2019.1696222
  • En, Boka; En, Michael; Griffiths, David & Pöll, Mercedes (2017) Non-monogamies and queer kinship: personal-political reflections. Queer STS Forum, 2(1), 15–27. ‹ PDF ›
  • En, Boka; En, Michael & Pöll, Mercedes (2017). A world without gender? The struggle of Austria’s far right over what it means to be human: An analysis of Barbara Rosenkranz’ book MenschInnen. In Michaela Köttig, Renate Bitzan, & Andrea Pető (Eds.), Gender and far right politics in Europe (235–252). Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-43533-6_16

Upcoming conference contributions

Due to the current global pandemic, I will not attend any conferences in 2020.

If you see me there, say hi!

Previous conference contributions (selection)

If you saw me at one of these or at any others I didn’t list here, be it at my presentations or in the queue for the buffet, let me know!

Current teaching

I’m currently not teaching any courses.

Most recent teaching

Writing

Some texts by me, friends and others that I’m happy to feature here. Will update as life allows it.

Links & recommendations

The following are some (very incomplete lists of) things that I invite you to check out:

Projects in which I was involved (selection)

These are some of the results of my working with/for really cool organisations and people that I’d like to show off here:

Other cool stuff & people

I like these. Maybe you’ll enjoy them, too?

  • The Faggots and their Friends between Revolutions a book by Larry Mitchell about fairies and freedom

  • ContraPoints YouTube channel on gender, (online) leftism and ‘the darkness’ by Natalie Wynn

  • Alan Watts Zen philosopher, great to listen to

  • Patchwork a board game for 2 people or teams that is both easy to set up and satisfying to play

  • Anomalies a story from my favourite webcomic, ‘Subnormality’

  • Cavetown musician, artist, kind person

  • Dreamy a lo-fi playlist (on Spotify), perfect for both work and chill

Books

Here’s some of the books I've read lately. The list is taken automatically from my GoodReads profile, which I try to keep up to date as well as I can. The books featured here are not filtered by any presentabality criteria or by how much I enjoyed them, just an overview of what I had fall into my hands lately.

Normal People
The Remains of the Day
Olive, Again
Olive Kitteridge
Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World
Clock Dance
Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness
A Lover's Discourse: Fragments

Video gaming

It’s dangerous to go alone.

Switch

For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, add me as your Switch friend: SW-2092-1541-6927 – if you do, I’d appreciate it if you could to let me know, so I can react.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I’d be glad to welcome you on Paon. My most cherished residents include Chadder, Antonio and Canberra.

In May 2020, I participated in the 2nd installment of the ‘FG Games’, a most lovely Animal Crossing competition event organised by FreddeGredde. You can watch the full episode on YouTube. I didn’t do very well in the first few games, but – spoiler alert – I won both rounds of the costume contest. It was all a lot of fun!

Pokémon GO

I’m currently looking, in particular, for the following:

  • Throh
  • Panpour
  • Spinda (shiny, various patterns)
  • Unown (B, C, D, F, G, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z, ?)

I can offer various shiny, regional or generally rare Pokémon. If you wanna become GO friends and trade (or just exchange gifts), hit me up!

Contact me

I’m looking forward to your message to

last update: August 2020