Translation²:
Training and research in multilingual and intercultural communication in the
global economy.
Frieda Steurs
KU Leuven
Faculty of Arts
Campus Antwerpen
Due to the Bologna agreement, universities and higher education in Europe have
undergone quite some significant changes. The Bachelor-Master structure was
introduced, and especially in Belgium we saw a huge change in the organization of the
university curricula, as translation and interpreting (T&I) moved away from the university
colleges into the proper university programs.
The introduction of these new programs confronted the old university system, with its
clear division between linguistics (mainly theoretically oriented) on the one hand, and
literature study on the other hand, with a new dimension: Translation Studies (although
in existence quite a while) had to find a proper place in the research organization of our
faculties.
The T&I departments at the university colleges had a long tradition and a very active
status in different fields:
International exchange
Research into T&I related topics
Curriculum building in compliance with the markets
International competition and quality labels
In some cases, the above mentioned elements were developed stronger at the former
university colleges than at the traditional universities. In my presentation, I will briefly
give a number of examples of these activities.
Translation studies has a huge potential and developed in the last decennia along many
different tracks.
I will give a number of examples from my own experience, and how KU Leuven managed
to integrate these tracks into the existing faculty structures.
In the department of linguistics a complete reorganization of the research groups took
place, leaving more space for our typical research tracks:
QLVL and MIDI are two of the linguistic research groups that expanded
considerably and are very successful in collecting research funding
Moreover, a completely new department was created: “Translation studies”, with 3
research groups:
VICT : translation and intercultural transfer
Interpreting studies
Translation and technology
In these research groups, linguists, translation technologists, scholars working on
comparative literature, intercultural transfer, history, etc. cooperate.
Apart from that, a more prominent place was assigned to CETRA, the Center for
Translation Studies.
In this way, an interdisciplinary outreach is possible to answer the needs of an
increasingly complex world which a range of communicative and cultural issues. Second,
also PhD training is enforced, with more PhDstudents, and international profiling and
cooperation.
In this presentation, I will give some examples of research in TS that is very relevant in
our modern, global society.