ABSTRACT
This chapter takes stock on the knowledge created on status characteristics (e.g., gender, age, ethnic origin) and their impact on behavior and expectations. More specifically, it focuses on how gender impacts interruption patterns in a task-oriented interaction, interpreting in the courtroom. Our study analyzes the interactions taking place in the virtual courtroom, where interpreters and other court agents had to adapt to novel constraints and create novel social norms to adapt to the Covid-related changes. Specifically, they had to coordinate their turns for short consecutive interpreting in an otherwise predominantly simultaneously interpreted courtroom. We draw on the results of a questionnaire on perceived interruptions. The data from our respondents (n = 40) shows how both male and female interpreters predominantly perceived being interrupted by men in the virtual courtroom. Furthermore, results show how interpreters perceive increased interruptions in the anomy of the newly established virtual courtroom.
