02/10/2025
Jamie 📖👨🏫
“I grew up between the United States and Nigeria, so back and forth between continents. My dad was a humanitarian surgeon in West Africa. In the States I did a doctorate in French literature and got a job teaching French and running a French program at Florida State in Tallahassee. But my wife and I had a kid and realized that we would rather raise him in Switzerland than in Florida. So we moved here. And I arrived at the UNIGE in 2011 to start the master's program at the Faculté de Traduction.
I wasn't going to be a French literature professor in a French-speaking country, so I was sort of reinventing myself. And, while I was doing my studies, the FTI hired me to do various little translation jobs, and ultimately I was hired to work on a project to translate the course titles that are being used at the university. And so I've been at the Rectorate since October 2015, exactly 10 years ago, translating grade transcripts. Right now the average number of transcripts we’ve delivered to students with the help of my interns is approximately 100 transcripts every month, so almost 10,000 transcripts! And what I'm really proud of is that we've never charged the students for these English transcripts.
I've also been teaching Expression Écrite B/EN, and Communication et culture B/EN at the FTI. I think the last time I calculated I've had over 1,000 students in my classes at the FTI over those 10 years. I love teaching, and so half my life is based around my students.
Everybody at the University knows that if they need an English language translation or edit or service, they can contact me. I'm always eager to ensure we have a good translation up on the website or for high-level communication, like the invitation to an international colloquium, for example.
I’m usually back and forth on the trains since I live in Vaud, not Geneva. I come to my translation office in Uni-Dufour, and then, I often have to run across Plainpalais to UniMail, where I teach, meet students, and see colleagues. So, it's a lot of running around, but I like that. It keeps me active, and it's never boring!”
