ASSOCIATION
Presentation
Welcome to the website of AIETI, the Iberian Association for Translation and Interpreting Studies, the only academic association of scholars of the translation and interpreting of the Iberian Peninsula’s languages. The vast majority of our members are lecturers and researchers from universities, although we also have researchers from private companies and national and international institutions among our ranks, as well as institutional members, such as public and non-governmental organizations and university departments and faculties.
AIETI’s goals are to:
a) Encourage reflection, study, research, teaching and scientific exchange revolving around the fields of translation and interpreting and their social and cultural impact.
b) Promote and raise awareness of Translation and Interpreting Studies.
c) Stimulate constant improvement in training in translation and interpreting, in the interests of quality in professional practice.
AIETI carries out various activities to fulfil its goals, notably including:
- Holding biennial international conferences.
- Promoting symposiums and all kinds of national and international specialized scientific meetings.
- Organizing the “Best Thesis of the Biennium” award.
- Publishing conference proceedings and award-winning theses in digital format.
- Providing members with information on academic events.
- Cooperating with national and international organizations that share our goals.
- Engaging in similar activities approved by the General Assembly.
Despite its relatively short existence, AIETI has become a cornerstone of the prolific intellectual exchange crucial to a discipline’s development, and a first-rate breeding ground for the networks of professional contacts vital to a scientific community’s consolidation.
A little history
While European universities began teaching Translation and Interpreting Studies midway through the 20th century, Spain and Portugal had to wait for the fall of their respective dictatorships. In Portugal, translation first appeared in the university arena in 1977, with the creation of short higher education programmes for training specialists in polytechnics. Public and private universities followed suit, and undergraduate and/or postgraduate Translation and Interpreting Studies programmes are now taught in more than 15 Portuguese institutions.
In Spain, a dual process took place. On the one hand, specialization resulted in existing training centres splitting up; for example, programmes in Philology (1975), Psychology (1977) and Fine Arts (1978) emerged from Faculties of Philosophy and Letters. On the other hand, some university study programmes were created from scratch, including Computer Studies, Translation and Interpreting (1972), and Library and Information Science (1978). In keeping with the tendencies of the time, these new programmes were geared to professional practice, and they were precursors of the education reform involved in the European convergence process. In short, in terms of training and research, the Translation and Interpreting Studies curriculum was exemplarily Bolognese avant la lettre.
Nowadays, more than 20 undergraduate degree programmes and almost as many postgraduate programmes are available in Spain. The spectacular growth of Translation and Interpreting Studies has brought numerous internationally renowned scholars together in the Iberian Peninsula, along with a host of young researchers and trainee researchers, at a time when the most veteran of their peers have barely begun to retire.
Since being founded in February 2003, AIETI has made a major contribution to the institutional consolidation of Translation and Interpreting Studies. Of particular note are our past and forthcoming general conferences in the following universities:
Universidad de Granada en 2003
Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid, en 2005
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, en 2007
Universidade de Vigo, en 2009
Universitat Jaume I, en 2011
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, en 2013
Universidad de Málaga, en 2015
Universidad de Alcalá, en 2017
Universidad de Valladolid, Campus Duques de Soria, en 2019
AIETI’s biennial international conferences have become key events for networking with the Translation and Interpreting Studies arena’s scientific community.