Access to health and legal services in urban settings is often hindered by linguistic and sociocultural barriers, particularly for marginalized groups (refugees, asylum seekers, migrant workers, sex workers, undocumented migrants, LGBTQ+ migrants, older migrants, etc). THELMA+ investigates how specialized health and legal information is communicated, translated, and simplified across multilingual and multicultural settings, fostering equity, inclusion, and cross-border collaboration in line with the 4EU+ Strategy 2025–2035.
THELMA+ is expected to produce a multilingual, cross-country evidence base on how health and legal information is communicated to marginalized communities, alongside a shared corpus and comparative insights into barriers and best practices. It will also deliver practical, culturally sensitive communication guidelines and strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, supporting more equitable access to services and future scalable research initiatives.
University of Milan: Jekaterina Nikitina (PI), Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Mediations, University of Milan.
Charles University: Tomáš Duběda, Institute of Translation Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
University of Geneva: Annarita Felici, Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, University of Geneva
University of Warsaw: Łucja Biel, Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw
Jekaterina Nikitina is Associate Professor of English language, translation and linguistics at the University of Milan, where she teaches linguistic mediation and legal/international discourse. Her research focuses on human rights and institutional communication, combining corpus-based discourse analysis, legal translation, and genre studies, with recent work on gender and justice. She has also published extensively on bioethics and healthcare communication. Before academia, she worked as a professional conference interpreter. She is PI of THELMA+ and author of Human Rights Discourse (Routledge, 2025), contributing to accessible and multilingual public communication. Professional website: https://www.unimi.it/it/ugov/person/jekaterina-nikitina
Contact information – Jekaterina.nikitina@unimi.it
Pier Mario Perrone, MD, PhD, is a specialist in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, holding a Ph.D. in Public Health. His scientific work focuses on the prevention of infectious diseases and health communication, with a particular emphasis on health literacy and vaccine hesitancy. Through his collaboration with the Center for Global Health at the University of Milan, he has developed a profound expertise in the socio-economic dynamics that influence the health of vulnerable populations. Combining clinical rigour with an attention to multicultural contexts, Dr. Perrone is dedicated to the promotion of equity in healthcare through inclusive and effective communication strategies.
Letizia Paglialunga (she/her) holds a PhD in Sociolinguistics from the University of Milan and is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Turin and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Milan. Her research currently focuses on language and gender, digital discourse, corpus linguistics, and human rights discourse. Her doctoral work examined discursive representations of non-binary identities on social media through Corpus Linguistics and Multimodal Critical Discourse Studies. She has been a visiting scholar at Lancaster University and the University of Edinburgh. Her work aims to contribute to the understanding of gender in contemporary society and media communication.
Chinese in-depth linguistic analyses; linguistic and cultural mediation and multimodal analysis.
Alessandro Vallati is a PhD Candidate in Chinese Linguistics at the University of Milan. His research focuses on medical communication, specialized medical terminology, and intercultural mediation, with particular attention to multilingual accessibility for Sinophonecommunities. His work combines corpus-based analysis of medical discourse with sociolinguistic and qualitative approaches, alongside the development of terminographicresources to support linguistic mediation and improve access to health communication. He has been a visiting PhD student at Nankai University (Tianjin), supported by a fellowship from the Chinese Ministry of Education, and is currently Academic Secretary for the Chinese Section of the Accademia Ambrosiana in Milan.
Ignacio Satti is a researcher in Spanish Linguistics at the University of Milan, where he teaches courses on Spanish for specific purposes and social interaction. His research, grounded in Conversation Analysis and Discourse Analysis, focuses on face-to-face and digitally mediated interaction, with particular attention to multimodal communication across everyday and institutional settings. Within this framework, he has examined health communication in social networks and interactions involving migrant communities. He has participated in international and interdisciplinary projects on medical communication in multicultural societies (PRIN/NextGenerationEU), synchronization in psychotherapy (FRIAS/European Commission), and frequency effects across languages (DFG).
Giovanna Mapelli is Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the Università degli Studi di Milano, where she teaches courses in Spanish language, discourse analysis and applied linguistics.
Her research interests focus on discourse analysis, pragmatics and specialised discourse, with particular attention to Spanish for specific purposes, including medical, tourism and sport communication. A significant part of her work explores linguistic and communicative strategies in the Instagram profiles of medical influencers, often adopting an interdisciplinary and corpus-based approach. She has participated in international and interdisciplinary projects on medical communication in multicultural societies (PRIN/NextGenerationEU; Proyecto AICO: Neotermed4AII).
Interns:
Giorgia Campanella, Giorgia Colpani, Sara Corbisiero, Antonio Ciccone, Giulia Maria Gino Grillo, Hongrong Pu, Veronica Romanò, Elisa Sala.
Tomáš Duběda is Associate Professor at the Institute of Translation Studies, Charles University, Prague (Czechia).
In his research, he specialises in contrastive linguistics (Czech/French), legal translation, non-native translation, and the role of AI in specialised translation. He has authored or co-authored four monographs on contrastive linguistics and translation. His recent articles, published e.g. in The Interpreter and Translator Trainer, Meta, Perspectives, Target, and The Translator, address, among other things, the quality of non-native translation and its social framing, the stylistic competence of non-native translators, the role of revision in legal translation, the typology of legal equivalents, and legal lexicography.
In addition to his academic activities, he is also a practising translator and a lecturer in life-long learning courses for legal translators.
Professional website: https://utrl.ff.cuni.cz/cs/ustavkatedra/lide/zamestnanci/doc-phdr-tomas-dubeda-ph-d/
Tomáš Duběda: dubeda@ff.cuni.cz
tomas.svoboda@ff.cuni.cz
Łucja Biel is a Professor of Linguistics and Translation Studies and Head of EUMultiLingua research group in the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw. She is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Specialised Translation. She has published extensively on legal translation, translator training, and corpus linguistics and co-edited: Handbook of Terminology. Legal Terminology (with H. Kockaert, 2023), Institutional Translator Training (with T. Svoboda, V. Sosoni; Routledge, 2022); Research Methods in Legal Translation and Interpreting (with J. Engberg, M. R. Martin Ruano, V. Sosoni, Routledge, 2019). She is also a sworn translator with over 25 years of professional experience.
Katarzyna Wasilewska is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, and a member of the EUMultiLingua team. Her research focuses on financial and administrative discourse, as well as terminology. In her work, she integrates emerging technologies with established methodological approaches. She is the author of the monograph „Administrative Reports: A Corpus Study of the Genre in the EU and Polish National Settings” (Peter Lang, 2021) and numerous articles specializing in EU and financial translation.
Anna Jopek-Bosiacka is Associate Professor at the Institute of Applied Linguistics of the University of Warsaw. She has published 3 books and several articles and chapters on legal translation and legal communication in a cross-cultural perspective. She is the editor-in-chief of Lingua Legis specialized translation journal. She has practiced as a sworn translator. She is also a qualified lawyer (attorney at law). Her research interests are legal and specialized translation, discourse analysis, public communication, legal rhetoric and argumentation, theory of law and logic, comparative law.
Annarita Felici is Associate Professor of Translation at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, University of Geneva, since October 2014, and Co-head of the Translation Department since 2024. Her research focuses on legal and specialized translation, contrastive and corpus linguistics, institutional communication, plain language, and barrier-free communication. She has published extensively in these fields, focusing more recently on plain language in institutional contexts. She has also compiled the
CHEU-lex corpus as part of a funded research project. Prior to joining the University of Geneva, she held academic positions in Germany and the United Kingdom. She has also worked as a translator and translation project manager specializing in linguistic validation.
Fernando Prieto Ramos is full professor and director of the Centre for Legal and Institutional Translation Studies (Transius) at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Translation and Interpreting. His work focuses on discourse analysis and legal and institutional translation. He has published widely, and received several academic awards, including an International Geneva Award (Swiss Network for International Studies) and a Consolidator Grant for his project “Legal Translation in International Institutional Settings” (LETRINT). He is a former member of Dublin City University’s Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, and has also worked for various institutions, including five years at the World Trade Organization.
Eugenia Portioli is a doctoral researcher and teaching assistant at the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Geneva. Her research interests include legal and administrative translation, linguistic simplification, translation in crisis contexts, linguistic rights, and social justice. She is currently preparing a doctoral dissertation on linguistic accessibility of administrative informative texts for people on the move. She also works as secondary school teacher and translator.
Months 1–4 | Data Mapping & Corpus Creation
The project begins with the collection and organisation of multilingual health and legal materials across all partner institutions.
Milestone (Month 4): Multilingual corpus largely completed across all units.
Current phase: transition from data collection to analysis (Month 4)
Months 3–8 | Comparative & In-depth Analysis
As the corpus reaches critical mass, the team conducts cross-country comparisons and detailed analyses of communication practices, focusing on clarity, translation, and multimodality.
Milestone (Month 8): Draft comparative results and analytical findings.
Months 6–10 | Synthesis & Knowledge Integration
Findings are consolidated across teams to identify best practices and prepare outputs for dissemination.
Milestone (Month 10): Initial policy-relevant insights and draft dissemination materials.
Month 9 | Intermediate Conference (Prague)
Presentation of preliminary results and exchange with project partners and stakeholders on September 3-4, 2026.
Milestone: Validation and refinement of findings through feedback.
Months 9–12 | Final Outputs & Dissemination
Final analyses are completed and translated into practical guidelines and communication models.
Milestone (Month 11): Final conference in Milan presenting project outcomes on November 5-6, 2026.
Milestone (Month 12): Preparation of final report and outreach materials.
Throughout the Project | Coordination & Collaboration
Continuous online coordination, shared resources, and cross-team collaboration ensure methodological coherence and integration.