ROUNDTABLE 1: Translation and Migrations
Wednesday 17 April, 12.40 – 2.10 p.m.
Federico Federici
Siri Nergaard
María Laura Spoturno
Bio notes
Federico Federici (University College London)
Federico M. Federici is Professor of Intercultural Crisis Communication at the Centre for Translation Studies, University College London, UK. Federico was a member of the EMT Board (2009-2014). His research predominantly focuses on translators and interpreters as intercultural mediators and the study of translation in crises. He has worked on Italo Calvino and the translation of minority languages and dialects. His articles have appeared in such journals as Translation Spaces, Translator and Interpreter Trainer, The Italianist, and the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. He edited a Special Issue of The Translator, entitled Translating Hazards (2023). He edited Language as a Social Determinant of Health (2022) and Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts (2016). He co-edited with Sharon O’Brien Translating Crises (2022); with Christophe Declercq Intercultural Crisis Communication (2019), and with Callum Walker Eye Tracking and Multidisciplinary Studies on Translation (2018). He co-authored reports on crisis communication policies, on multilingual communication in the humanitarian sector, and government briefs.
His research focuses on translators and interpreters as intercultural mediators and on multilingual communication in cascading crises. He is interested in equal access to information in multilingual contexts and on empirical research methods. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0057-0340.
Siri Nergaard (Universitetet i Sørøst)
Siri Nergaard is professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway (Universitetet i Sørøst), where she started a new career after many years in Italy where she worked at the Universities of Bologna and Florence.
Her main fields are translation theory, semiotics, and cultural studies, and her research focuses on transdisciplinary aspects of translation. In addition to numerous articles, Nergaard is author and editor of several books in Italian on translation Studies. Among her most recent publications are the book Translation and Transmigration (Routledge 2021), and an article in Norwegian on the genealogy of the concept of Untranslatability in Translation Studies. Nergaard is particularly interested in the relation between translation and other social and cultural phenomena such as architecture and migration and is currently working on a special issue on Translation and Architecture in the journal Khorein.
Nergaard is Director of FUSP Nida Centre for Advanced Research on Translation and its yearly FUSP Summer School. She is also Editor of the journal Translation: A transdisciplinary journal which shortly will be accessible in open access.
María Laura Spoturno (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)
María Laura Spoturno is Associate Professor of Literary Translation at Universidad Nacional de La Plata, in Argentina, and a full-time researcher with the Consejo de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. She is a member of the Managing Council of the Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Traductología at her home institution and of the IATIS Regional Workshops Committee. Spoturno is the principal investigator of three research projects which focus on issues of translation, subjectivity, gender and activisms from a perspective that emphasizes the social and ethical responsibility implied in translation and interpreting practices. She is a member of two research groups in Spain, at Universidad de Salamanca (TRADIC) and Universidade de Vigo (BIFEGA). Her research include the study of subjectivity in self-translation and retranslation practices, literary heterolingualism and the intersections between translation, feminisms and the advocacy for human rights in the context of exile. She has edited the books Escrituras de minorías, heterogeneidad y traducción (FaHCE, UNLP 2018), Subjetividad, discurso y traducción: la construcción del ethos en la escritura y la traducción (Ediciones Universidad de Valladolid, 2022) and has co-edited special issues on translation, gender and feminisms in Latin American and European journals. Together with Olga Castro, she has founded the journal Feminist Translation Studies (Taylor & Francis).
ROUNDTABLE 2: Accessibility and Translation
Wednesday 17 April, 7 – 8.30 p.m.
Carme Mangiron
Anna Matamala
Pablo Romero Fresco
Bio notes
Carme Mangiron (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Carme Mangiron is a lecturer at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a member of the Transmedia Catalonia research group. She is the coordinator of the Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Translation at the UAB. She won the UAB Teaching Excellence Award in 2022. She has considerable professional experience as a translator, specialising in software and video game localisation, including the Final Fantasy saga. Her main areas of research are the translation and localisation of video games and their accessibility. She has participated in various national and international research projects. She is the co-author with Minako O’Hagan of Game Localization: Translating for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry (2013) and one of the editors of Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility Practices in Video Games (Mangiron, Orero & O’Hagan, 2014). She is also the main organiser of the Fun for All: Translation and Accessibility in Video Games conference, which began in 2010 and is held at the UAB every two years.
Anna Matamala (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Anna Matamala, PhD in Applied Linguistics (UPF), is Full Professor of Translation at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. Principal researcher of the TransMedia Catalonia group, she has participated in (DTV4ALL, ADLAB, HBB4ALL, ACT, ADLAB PRO, IMAC, TRACTION) and led (AVT-LP, ALST, VIW, NEA, EASIT, RAD) many European and national projects. She is currently involved in the European projects Mediaverse, YoungarcHers and ATHENA, and is the director of the network AccessCat. She has published numerous articles in important journals and is the author of a monograph on interjections (IEC, 2005), co-author of a monograph on voice-over (Peter Lang, 2010) and author of a book about audiovisual translation and accessibility (Eumo, 2019), as well as the co-editor of several volumes on translation and accessibility in the media. Joan Coromines Award 2005, APOSTA Award 2011, Margaret Pfanstiehl Award 2021. She is involved in standardisation work and is particularly interested in knowledge transfer. More information: webs.uab.cat/amatamala/en.
Pablo Romero Fresco (Universidade de Vigo)
Pablo Romero Fresco is a Senior Lecturer at the Universidade de Vigo and Honorary Professor of Translation and Filmmaking at the University of Roehampton, where he worked for 10 years. He is the author of the following books: Subtitling through Speech Recognition: Respeaking (Routledge), Accessible Filmmaking (Routledge) and Access as transformation: Alternative Media Access (Routledge, forthcoming). He is a member of the Consello da Cultura Galega (the Council for Galician Culture) and of the editorial board of the Journal of Audiovisual Translation, as well as the director of the research group GALMA (Galician Observatory for Media Access), with which he is currently leading several research projects on media accessibility and from which he advises the governments of different countries (United Kingdom, Australia and Canada), the European Parliament, the Spanish Film Academy, and companies and television channels such as Netflix, AiMedia, Sky or Subti. Pablo is also a film director. His first documentary, Joining the Dots (2012), premiered at the 69th Venice Film Festival. His second documentary, Donde acaba la memoria, premiered at the Seminci and at the London Spanish Film Festival in 2022.
ROUNDTABLE 3: Translation Industry and Professionals
Thursday 18 April, 9 – 10.30 a.m.
Ainhoa Blanco
Adriana M. Blas
Louisa Semlyen
Bio notes
Ainhoa Blanco (Lionbridge)
With more than two decades of experience in the language services industry, Ainhoa is currently Global Head of Language Excellence at Lionbridge, where she leads a team of language experts in several of the company’s 27 offices around the world. Her academic roots are in translation and interpreting, and for 13 years she had the privilege of teaching translation and interpreting techniques in private university settings. Her professional career at Lionbridge has allowed her to work in a variety of roles, all in connection with languages: from translator and proofreader to global team leader and quality manager in complex multilingual structures. She is currently immersed in the (re)volution of the business world with the arrival of generative AI, its possible impact on today’s and tomorrow’s industry, and the design of new services. Although she does not have any traditional publications to her name, her direct experience working with major, well-known clients on multilingual projects deserves recognition.
Adriana M. Blas (Asetrad)
Adriana M. Blas was born in Madrid in the same year that Spain joined the European Economic Community, when cassette tapes still existed, VHS was cutting-edge technology and Mecano topped the charts. She graduated in Translation and Interpreting from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2008 and has worked as a translator since 2010. She is currently a freelance translator from English and Portuguese into Spanish, a proofreader and a content writer. Her areas of expertise are marketing, tourism, fashion and gastronomy. A member of Asetrad since 2012, she has been a member of the Communication and Brand Image Committee, worked with the proofreading team of the journal La Linterna del Traductor since issue 12 and been a member of Asetrad’s Communication and Events Committee. She became the president of the association in May 2023.
Asetrad is the Spanish Association of Translators, Proofreaders and Interpreters. It was founded in 2003 with the aim of promoting the recognition of translation, proofreading and interpreting, and defending the interests of those who work in the field. It is an open association which brings together professionals from different countries, with diverse backgrounds and levels of experience, as well as students and university lecturers. There are two membership categories: professional and other. Among the services offered, members can receive advice in connection with the professions themselves, legal and tax issues, as well as the defence of their rights before national and local public bodies. Members also have access to courses, seminars, contests and may other activities which promote and improve the profession.
Louisa Semlyen (Routledge)
Louisa Semlyen is Senior Publisher for English Language and Linguistics, Translation and Interpreting studies and Literature at Routledge. She manages a team of editors and oversees all of Routledge’s publishing in these areas. With over 30 year’s publishing experience, Louisa has signed books in translation and interpreting studies since the mid-90s and shaped a world-leading publishing programme, encompassing reference works from Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies to the Routledge Handbooks in Translation and Interpreting studies, essential textbooks for students from Introducing Translation Studies 5e to the new series Routledge Introductions to Translation and Interpreting, and seminal works from The Translator’s Invisibility to Translation in Systems.
ROUNDTABLE 4: Linguistic and Technological Globalisation in the Teaching of Translation and Interpreting
Thursday 18 April, 7 – 8.30 p.m.
Michaela Albl-Mikasa
Iria da Cunha
Astrid Schmidhofer
Bio notes
Michaela Albl-Mikasa (ZHAW, Zurich University of Applied Sciencies)
Michaela Albl-Mikasa is Professor of Interpreting Studies at the School of Applied Linguistics’ Institute of Translation and Interpreting, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. Her research and publications focus on ITELF (interpreting, translation and English as a lingua franca), the cognitive foundations of conference and community interpreting, the development of interpreting expertise, note-taking for consecutive interpreting and medical interpreting. She was a member of the Executive Council of the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies (IATIS) from 2016 to 2021 and has been a member of the Board of the European Network of Public Service Interpreting (ENPSIT) since 2020. She is also a member of the Swiss Research Centre Barrier-free Communication and principal investigator of the interdisciplinary Sinergia project Cognitive Load in Interpreting and Translation (CLINT, 2018 – 2022), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). She is editor, together with Elisabet Tiselius, of the Routledge Handbook of Conference Interpreting.
Iria da Cunha (UNED, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia)
Iria da Cunha holds a PhD in Language Sciences and Applied Linguistics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She is currently a lecturer in the Faculty of Philology at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, where she was previously a Ramón y Cajal researcher. She is a full member of the Young Academy of Spain, a member of the Board of Directors for the Spanish Association for Terminology and a member of the Technical Standardisation Committee AEN/CTN 191 of the Spanish Association for Standardisation. She is the author of 120 scientific publications, including the books El discurso del ámbito de la Administración. Una perspectiva lingüística, and Lenguaje claro y tecnología en la Administración, both published by Comares. She has participated in 23 research projects and has been the PI of four of them, one funded by the BBVA Foundation by means of a Leonardo Grant and three by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. She is the creator of arText, assisted text editor software which helps with the writing of specialised texts and those using plain language.
Astrid Schmidhofer (Universität Innsbruck)
Astrid Schmidhofer holds a PhD from the Universidad de Córdoba and works as a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Innsbruck, where she teaches translation, interpreting, language, translation theory and cultural studies. Her main areas of research are translator training, translation didactics, machine translation from a didactic perspective, and contrastive linguistics (German-Spanish). Since September 2021, she has led a project funded by the Austrian Science and Research Fund (FWF) on the linguistic competence of the translator and interpreter and how it can be developed both within and outside university translation and interpreting programmes. She is the author of numerous articles in specialised journals and collective works and co-editor of the Peter Lang series Forum Translationswissenschaft.
ROUNDTABLE 5: Ethics and Quality in the Translation Industries
Friday 19 April, 11.45 a.m. – 1.15 p.m.
Alan K. Melby
Joss Moorkens
Sharon O’Brien
Bio notes
Alan K. Melby (LTAC Global, FIT North America)
Raised in Indiana. Identifies as a Hoosier.
Became fascinated with translation in the mid-1960s, while on study abroad in St Brieuc, France. In 1978, after obtaining a PhD in computational linguistics, experienced an intellectual crisis regarding the nature of language, concluding that unambiguous general language would be the ultimate prison, but domain-specific language can and should be unambiguous. In 1979, shifted focus toward tools for human translators. In the 1980s, became an ATA-certified French-to-English translator. In the 1990s, got into philosophy of language and wrote a book about human and machine translation (The possibility of Language) with a philosopher, Terry Warner.
In the 21st century, has focused on service to the translation profession, previously serving on the governing boards of ATA (https://www.atanet.org/), then FIT (fit-ift.org), and currently (2023) serving as president of LTAC Global (ltacglobal.org), a small non-profit, chair of the FIT North America regional center, and collaborator on the development of translation-related standards. In 2014, retired from full-time teaching and became an emeritus full professor. Since 2015, standards work has expanded to translation quality evaluation within the MQM framework (Multidimensional Quality Metrics for Translation Quality Evaluation) under the umbrella of ASTM International (www.astm.org), a standards body.
Joss Moorkens (Dublin City University)
Joss Moorkens is an Associate Professor at the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies in Dublin City University (DCU), Challenge Leader at the ADAPT Centre, and member of DCU’s Institute of Ethics, and Centre for Translation and Textual Studies. He has written on the topics of translation technology, machine translation post-editing, user evaluation of machine translation, translator precarity, and translation ethics. He is General Coeditor of the journal Translation Spaces with Prof. Dorothy Kenny, coeditor of a number of books and journal special issues, and coauthor of the textbook Translation Tools and Technologies (Routledge 2023) and a forthcoming book on Machine Translation and Automation (Routledge 2024).
Sharon O’Brien (Dublin City University)
Sharon O’Brien is Professor of Translation Studies in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City University, Ireland, where she teaches translation technology, localisation, research methods, and crisis translation, among other topics. She acts as Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science. She was coordinator of the EU-funded International Network in Crisis Translation and a funded investigator in the Science Foundation Ireland national research centre, ADAPT, for over 10 years. Sharon has supervised twelve PhD students to date and has mentored several post-doctoral fellows. Sharon’s full profile can be found here.
