In this lecture I will approach translation as a situated and materialized practice, operating within specific political and institutional settings. Translation policies are a case in point. More in particular, I will focus on translation policies during the Covid pandemic in order to explore how the situatedness of translation entails important implications for the role of the translator, for the practice of translation, for the definition of translation and for the discipline of Translation Studies.
Bio: REINE MEYLAERTS is Full Professor at the department of Translation Studies and has been vice-rector of Research Policy (2017-2021) and vice-rector of Social Sciences and Humanities (2021-2025) at KU Leuven. Her research interests concern translation policy for minorities, intercultural mediation and transfer in multilingual cultures, past and present. She has written or edited about 150 articles, book chapters and books on these topics (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).