James Alexander Grieve - language scholar and translator

Abstract

This audio interview with James Grieve, previously Reader in French, is part of the ANU Emeritus Faculty's Oral History Program, involving retired staff members who were part of the university in its earlier life. The Oral History Program was initiated and developed by ANU Emeritus Faculty as a contribution to university and community understanding of the beginnings and development of ANU over the past six decades. Emeritus Faculty has a special interest in this era, since the Faculty's membership includes many of the people who helped shape the university in its early days, to make it the pre-eminent institution it is today.

James Grieve was born in Northern Ireland in 1934 of Scots parents who divided their lives between Glasgow and Belfast. Most of James' schooling was in Belfast, and after completing his secondary years he studied Romance languages at Queen's University. On graduating, he taught French, Spanish and English in schools in Paris and Belfast, then emigrated to Australia in 1960. In 1961 he was appointed Senior Tutor in the newly formed Department of French in the School of General Studies at ANU. He undertook postgraduate study there and in 1964 was appointed lecturer, then senior lecturer in 1971 and Reader in 1998.

In his time at ANU, James was also Research Secretary and Assistant to the Director in the Humanities Research Centre, and later a Visiting Fellow there. He was Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Arts, in which capacity he was also a member of the historically important ANU 10-10 Committee. He was Secretary of the ANU Staff Association, and served on the ANU Council as a representative of sub-professorial staff. During the 1990s, James was Convener of French in the Department of Modern European Languages.

James 'retired' from academic staff in 1999 to become a Visiting Fellow (without salary but with full teaching load) in the School of Language Studies, within ANU's College of the Arts and Social Sciences, a position he still holds while continuing his research and writing. He is now a member of Emeritus Faculty, and is their Obituaries Officer.

James' research interests have included traditional literary study, linguistics, and the translation of French writers and scholars. He has compiled a Dictionary of Contemporary French Connectors, and has published articles in, and presented papers at, national and international fora on translation, literature and aspects of language. He has also written (in English) and published two novels for young adults, one of which ‘A Season of Grannies' was also published in Paris in French translation and distributed by a respected Paris publishing house.