Description
Translation is poised to become the metaphor of our times. Things change, metamorphose, become other. But the dynamic is not random; the new is always modelled on the old, reformed in accordance with changing circumstances – a constant process of becoming that is constitutive of languages, knowledge and cultures.
This was how ‘translation’ was understood in the medieval period before representation was installed as the dominant theory of meaning in the Western world. It was an embodied performative concept, which was vertical as well as horizontal in that it involved change over time.
In Middle English, flowers, bishops, captured peoples, and the relics of saints are all translat from garden to garden, see to see, kingdom to kingdom, shrine to shrine; the soul is translat to God in mystical rapture or at death; and learning, culture, political power, and divine covenant are translat from east to west, pagan to Christian, Old to New Testament, in various manifestations of ‘translatio studii et imperii’, the translation of learning and empire (Watson 2008:76).
Today, translation is again being used in senses that take it far beyond the merely textual. In philosophy, it is ‘understanding, interpretation and hermeneutics’; in linguistics it is ‘meaning, conceptualization, construal and metaphor’; in anthropology ‘an encounter with others and oneself’ (Blumczynski 2016: ix). In biology, genes are translated into cells and bodies, while in medicine, scientific findings are translated into enhanced health and well-being. For Douglas Robinson (2017: x), translationality is ‘transformationality: the constant emergingness of everything through embodied, situated, performative interactions’ [my emphasis].
This strand seeks to explore the transformative processes at work within the Centre’s specific domains of interest. It looks not only at how texts metamorphose in different linguistic, cultural and semiotic settings, but also at how concepts, models and codes migrate and evolve over time.
It therefore contemplates a range of perspectives from the theoretical, descriptive and critical to the practical and pedagogical. Initiatives proposed under its auspices will include not only research into various forms of translational behavior, but also practical training sessions designed to complement the courses currently offered on our degree programmes.
Bibliography:
Blumczynski, Piotr (2016) Ubiquitous Translation. London and New York: Routledge.
Robinson, Douglas (2017) Translationality: Essays in the Translational-Medical Humanities. London and New York: Routledge
Watson, Nicholas (2008) ‘Theories of Translation’. In the Oxford History of Literary Translation into English, Vol. 1. To 1550. R Ellis (ed.) Oxford University Press. 73-90.
Translation Matters journal
CETAPS’s strand on Translationality is delighted to inform you that its Translation Matters journal has been successfully indexed in SCOPUS, which is the leading abstract and citation database for peer-reviewed literature. This important milestone guarantees that the journal’s articles can be readily located when conducting searches related to translation and interpreting. Moreover, it empowers our authors to monitor the frequency of citations their work receives from other researchers. Huge thanks to our authors, peer-reviewers, copy-editors and advisory board for making all this possible!
Research Projects
- EPISTRAN (Epistemic Translation: Textual Transits between Paradigms of Knowledge): research project launched in March 2023). URL: epistran.org
- Indirect translation and Sustainable Development
- Machine Translation Literacy for high-risk scenarios in Portugal,
- Verão com Ciência
- Collaboration with CITIUS (Santiago de Compostela). We are developing a collaboration with a research centre specialized in the use of machine learning in the Humanities.
Conferences
- Graduate Symposium: New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies VIII 23-24 January 2025 https://newvoicespts.wordpress.com/
- Epistran Online Lectures 21 November 2024 – 27 February 2025 https://www.epistran.org/online-lecture-series
- Graduate Symposium: New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies VII 25-26 January 2024 https://newvoicespts.wordpress.com/newvoices2024/
-
EPISTEMIC TRANSLATION: TOWARDS AN ECOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGES 14-16 December 2023 https://www.epistran.org/international-conference
- Graduate Symposium: New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies VI 16-17 February 2023 https://newvoicespts.wordpress.com/newvoices2023/
- Graduate Symposium: New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies V 17-18 February 2022 https://newvoicespts.wordpress.com/newvoices2022/
- Conference: Picturebooks and graphic narratives in education and translation: Mediation and multimodality. 24-26 June 2021 https://picbookseducation.wordpress.com/
- Symposium Medieval Metamorphosis: Rewritings, Tradition and Translation. 27 May 2021
- Graduate Symposium: New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies IV. 4-5 February 2021 https://newvoicespts.wordpress.com/newvoices2021/
- Graduate Symposium: New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies III. 6 February 2020 https://newvoicespts.wordpress.com/2020-2/
- Conference: A importância do tradutor/intérprete num mundo globalizado, Aptrad – Associação de Profissionais de Tradução e de Interpretação. 1 July 2019. FCSH
- Graduate Symposium: New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies II. 14th February 2019 https://newvoicespts.wordpress.com/2019-2/
- International interdisciplinary conference: “A host of tongues…”: Multilingualism, lingua franca and translation in the Early Modern period(co-hosted with CHAM and CEL). 13th to 15th December 2018. https://ahostoftongues.wordpress.com/
- I Jornadas sobre Tradução de Espanhol para Português e de Português para Espanhol. FCSH, 19 de Outubro 2018. https://jornadastraducaoesptptes.weebly.com/
- Graduate Symposium: New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies I. 25thJanuary 2018. https://newvoicespts.wordpress.com/2018-2/
Training Courses
- Training Grants: the Translationality strand has awarded research initiation grants to junior researchers (2 grants offered in 2022 and 3 in 2024), and one PhD scholarship
- Soundscapes – Translating from Music: short online course held in Spring 2022 to explore the meaning-making potential of music and stimulation the production of intersemiotic translations into other media. URL: https://soundscapestranslatingfrommusic.wordpress.com/
- Workshop Indirect translation in translation practicum: 101 course for translator trainers in the 7th IATIS Congress, UCP, Barcelona, Spain (Link) June-July 2021 This train-the-trainer workshop was about indirect translation , understood as translation done via a third language. It provided translator trainers worldwide with tips about teaching how to translate with a subsequent translation in mind, and how to translate from translation.
- CETAPS Translation School. A series of short-term courses for translators and researchers. URL: https://www.translationschool.org/
- Our researchers also collaborated with FCSH Summer School in different courses throughout the years, mainly in the translation technology field, including Best Practices in Translation Technology in 2017.
- Our researchers are also involved in the CAT@NOVA project, which aims to provide the tools, training and licenses needed for BA and MA students to use CAT tools throughout their degrees.
- –AiVoT Online Educational Resources, co-developed with the University of Leiden, UAB and University of Lisbon: https://rise.articulate.com/share/Ux0ARnkO6IztkTvd53l7eNemHUWXx4zK#/: theseresearch-based educational resources are freely accessible in multiple languages. Developed collaboratively with translation trainers, students, and key decision-makers in translation education, ApiVoT addresses a critical need for open-access teaching materials. Comprising 41 videos enriched with interactive elements, ApiVoT supports the teaching of pivot translation—an essential method in translating digital content—particularly in minority languages. Its mission is to bridge the gap in translation education, empowering trainers and learners globally.
- Machine translation literacy for high-stakes situations: This multilingual MOOC, to be launched in late 2024, targets migrants and healthcare professionals. By the end of this course participants will be able to identify and address the benefits and, more importantly, the risks of an uncritical and standard implementation of machine translation in healthcare settings
Outreach
- Translation@NOVA. The Translationality team is responsible for a website to shares information about courses and events in our areas and is open for informal publications by students and teachers. URL: https://translationnova.wordpress.com/
- NOVA Translation Talks (organized by CETAPS). This series of talks bring together professionals, students and researchers of translation. URL: https://translationnova.wordpress.com/category/nova-translation-talks/
- CETAPS Talks. Our team is also responsible for a biannual series of talks by internationally distinguished speakers who specialize in translating knowledge in the Humanities to the general public. URL: cetaps-talks.com
- Our researchers are frequently invited to speak to the press, TV and radio stations regarding translation, language and related subjects. They have also been invited to give talks to the general public and to write weekly columns about language and translation.
- Some researchers are particularly active in disseminating translational matters to a broader audience. Examples of their publications include: Neves, Marco (2021). ABC da Tradução. Guerra e Paz. ISBN 978-9897025242;
Selected Publications
- Bennett, Karen and Sandie Mourão, Multimodal Mediation through Picturebooks and Graphic Narratives, Routledge, 2025
- Bennett, Karen and R. M. Puga, eds (2023) Translation and Transposition in the Early Modern Period: Knowledge, Literature, Travel, London & New York: Routledge, 2023. ISBN 9780367552169
- Bennett, Karen and Angelo Cattaneo, eds (2022) Language Dynamics in the Early Modern Period, London and New York: Routledge ISBN 9780367552145/ https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003092445
- Pięta, Hanna, Rita Bueno Maia and Ester Torres-Simón. (2022). Indirect translation explained. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780367473655
- Neves, Marco (2021). O Tradutor Ansioso: Boas Práticas de Tradução Empresarial. Certas Palavras. ISBN 978-9899802711
- Bennett, Karen and Rita Queiroz de Barros, eds (2019): Hybrid Englishes and the Challenges of and for Translation: Identity, Mobility and Language Change. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN: 9781138307407
- Edited collection: Hybrid Englishes and the Challenges of and for Translation: Identity, Mobility and Language Change. Karen Bennett and Rita Queiroz de Barros (eds). London and New York: Routledge (2019). https://www.routledge.com/Hybrid-Englishes-and-the-Challenges-of-and-for-Translation-Identity-Mobility/Bennett-Queiroz-de-Barros/p/book/9781138307407
- Monograph: Anglolusofilias: Alguns Trânsitos Literários, Jorge Bastos da Silva. Porto: Edições Afrontamento. http://ilcml.com/estudos-de-literatura-comparada/img11/
- Special Issue: International English and Translation, special issue of The Translator23/4 (2017), Karen Bennett and Rita Queiroz de Barros (eds) https://tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13556509.2017.1385939
Book Reviews
Translation as actor-networking: actors, agencies, and networks in the making of Arthur Waley’s English translation of the Chinese Journey to the West (Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies) by Wenyan Luo, New York and Abingdon, Routledge, 2020, 246 pp., £120.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0- 367-37502-7; £33.29 (e- book), ISBN 978-0-367-81581-3. Gisele Dionísio da Silva
Awards and funding
– The NOVA impACT! Challenges: In 2023, our NObarriers2Health project was among ten top finalists for this competition. The competition is a program created by the NOVA Impact office, together with Santander Universities, to give teams the opportunity to take their innovative projects out of paper and help solve social problems. Researchers from NObarriers2Health received a monetary award and for three weeks, together with a team of experts and mentors, accelerated the project and developed a prototype. In the end, they pitched it live to a jury.
– Exploratory Funding (NOVA FCSH): In 2023, our NObarriers2Health project received this monetary award from the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education to accelerate the preparation of a grant application for EC funding.
– Verão com Ciência (FCT): In 2022, our NObarriers2Health received funding (Bolsas de Iniciação) to hire two researchers who developed participatory, survey-based research on machine translation literacy in Portugal
– YERUN 2023 Open Science Awards: In 2023, the ApiVoT resources developed in collaboration with the University of Leiden under the Indirect Translation and Sustainability project were pre-selected for this award, which recognises and celebrates exceptional Open Science initiatives across the YERUN network.
– 2020: Karen Bennett was awarded the Santander Prize for Internationalization of Research at NOVA FCSH 2020, individual prize (4º place ex-aequo)
Related Activities

III Lisbon Spring School in Translation Studies
Portugal Translation News – Issue 87
Portugal Translation News – Issue 86

Migrações e Desafios de Integração | Tecnologias e barreiras linguísticas

Palavrões da Ciência – podcast com Marco Neves, Hanna Pieta e Susana Valdez
Portugal Translation News – Issue 85

New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies

Translating Cosmovisions: Knowledges in Transformation

NOVA Translation Talks
Portugal Translation News – Issue 84

Translation Talks
Portugal Translation News – Issue 83

Construir Pontes 2024
Portugal Translation News – Issue 82

Multimodal Mediation through Picturebooks and Graphic Narratives

New Voices in Portuguese Translation Studies
Portugal Translation News – Issue 81
Portugal Translation News – Issue 80

Reading José Saramago in Turkish

Epistemic Translation: Towards an Ecology of Knowledges

Jornadas sobre Tradução de Espanhol para Português e de Português para Espanhol

Soundscapes: translating from music

Picturebooks and Graphic Narratives in Education and Translation: Mediation and multimodality

Medieval Metamorphosis: Rewritings, Tradition and Translation

Interview with Professor Karen Bennett on translation in the academic context

Translation Café

The Epistran Project

Translation Matters

“A host of tongues…”: Multilingualism, lingua franca and translation in the Early Modern period
Members

Alexandra Costa Ferreira
Alexandra Costa Ferreira

Ana Brígida Paiva

Ana Cláudia Mendes

Andreia Sarabando

Bárbara Sofia Oliveira
Bárbara Sofia Oliveira

Carla Morais Pires

Carlos Guimarães

Daniela Rodrigues

David Swartz

Elena Galvão

Flávia Coelho
