Cláudia Martins attended the 11th Congress of the European Society of Translation in Leeds in July 2025, thanks to the Inclusiveness Target Country (ITC) Conference Grant awarded by PLURILINGMEDIA. Here she shares some of her impressions.
The European Society of Translation (EST) is one of the major associations for translation and interpreting scholars that organises a conference every 3 years. The 11th Congress was held at the University of Leeds and focused on the changing faces of Translation and Interpreting Studies. According to EST, the congress hosted 50 thematic panels and a general panel stream, with nearly 600 in-person presentations, posters, and online presentations (from almost 1,000 submissions), four keynotes, and two roundtables, and welcomed over 700 attendees to Leeds for the event from all over the world.
The general topic of the congress attracted my attention from the start for two main reasons: because it was aligned with one of our COST Action’s aims – to disseminate information about our project in international events from a myriad of areas – but it also provided an opportunity to give visibility to minority languages and their rights. Although the focus of the congress was on the translation and interpreting industry and academic research, these areas are of the utmost importance for minority languages and intertwined with the digital sphere that is also the core of PLURILINGMEDIA. By looking at the changes that have occurred in different places, platforms and modalities throughout the last two decades, the Congress was to “take stock of these different faces and discourses by sharing different needs and expectations”.
This congress emerged as an excellent opportunity to submit a panel on the translation in/of minority languages introduced by my presentation on ‘the relation between Translation and Interpreting Studies and minority languages’. The rationale behind this proposal was inspired by Michael Cronin who stated back in 2003 that “[s]peakers of minority languages looking into the disciplinary mirror of translation studies can also experience the troubling absence of the undead”. Over 20 years after, minority languages still struggle to shake off this undeadness.
In my introductory presentation, I delved into some tentative definitions of minority and regional languages and how political, social, economic and legal factors influence their status. Considering that minority languages are involved in cultural interaction and exchange, I suggested several ideas to trigger discussion: the role of translation – and minority languages’ “traductological capital” (Ferreira & Martins, 2019) – in supporting their recognition and revitalisation; the presence in today’s digital landscape – in TV broadcasting, on satellite and streaming TV, in social media; and through the use of accessible Audiovisual Translation modes, such as subtitling, dubbing or audiodescription.
As far as the panel was concerned, about half of the 9 presentations focused on the literary translation in minority languages. Regardless of the quality of all presentations, I would like to highlight 3 presentations: one on the Roma communities by Pavel Sveda, another on addressing accessibility in audiovisual content by Luz Belenguer Cortés and one last one on the use of AI in translating informal Basque in social media by Nora Aranberri.
All in all, both the panel and my presentation sparked meaningful discussions during and after the session, highlighting the growing importance of translation as a means for linguistic empowerment and cultural sustainability in multilingual societies. I managed to get positive feedback and promote the work of PLURILINGMEDIA, as well as encouraging participants to join the Action. Thus, the 11th EST Congress not only helped disseminate my findings to a wider audience but also positioned me as a knowledgeable voice on issues at the intersection of translation and minority language rights. I wish to express my gratitude to PLURILINGMEDIA for allowing me to participate in the EST Congress in Leeds.
