Abstract:
This lecture draws on the research project “Language is (not) a barrier”: Towards effective translation policies and practices for official communication with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Brussels and Melbourne. By focusing on translation policies and practices in Brussels during the COVID-19 pandemic, I will not only discuss their impact on CALD communities but also to what extent these policies and practices reflect global patterns, using comparisons with findings from other studies. As a result, this lecture will also allow to consider broader implications for the roles of translators, for translation practices, for how we define translation, and for the discipline of Translation Studies as a whole.
About the Speaker:
Reine Meylaerts is a Full Professor in the Department of Translation Studies at KU Leuven. She served as vice-rector of Research Policy from 2017 to 2021, and as vice-rector of Social Sciences and Humanities from 2021 to 2025. Her research focuses on translation policy related to minorities, intercultural mediation, and cultural transfer in multilingual societies, both historically and today. She has authored or edited approximately 150 articles, book chapters, and books on these subjects (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8088-1519). She was keynote speaker/invited expert at some 40 International Conferences/Expert Workshops and has been lecturing at Harvard University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beihang University, Copenhagen University, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (Brazil), Abu Dis University among others. She has been coordinating national and international research projects and supervising more than 20 doctoral students. She was director of CETRA (Centre for Translation Studies; https://www.arts.kuleuven.be/cetra) from 2006-2014 and is now board member. She is former Secretary General (2004-2010) of the European Society for Translation Studies (EST).
Background Readings:
Meylaerts, R. (2011). Translation Policy. In Y. Gambier & L. van Doorslaer (Eds.), Handbook of Translation Studies (Vol. 2, pp. 163–168). Benjamins.
Meylaerts, R. (2024). Public services and translation policy. In F. Grin, M. Gazzola, L. Cardinal, & K. Heugh (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Language Policy and Planning (pp. 497–509). Routledge.
Meylaerts, R., Macreadie, R., Bouyzourn, K., & Pym, A. (2024). How should we study interactions between translation policies, practices, and beliefs? Comparing case studies from a time of crisis. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 10, 1–19.