Postmonolingualism, as formulated by Yildiz, can be understood to be a resistance to the demands of institutions that seek to enforce a monolingual standard. Complex identities, social practices, and cultural products are increasingly required to conform to the expectancies of a norm that for many is no longer considered reasonable. Thus, in this postmonolingual age, it is essential that the approaches and initiatives used to counter these demands aim not only to understand these hyper-diverse societies but also to deminoritize underprivileged communities.
‘Translating and Interpreting Justice in a Postmonolingual Age’ is an attempt to expand the limits of postmonolingualism as a framework for exploring the possibilities of translation and interpreting in mediating between the myriad of sociocultural communities that coexist today. Challenging assumptions about the role of translation and interpreting, the contributions gathered in this volume focus on intercultural and intergroup understanding as a process and as a requisite for social justice and ethical progress. From different but complementary approaches, practical experiences and existing legal and policy frameworks are scrutinized to highlight the need for translation and interpreting policies in legal and institutional contexts in multicultural societies. Researchers and policymakers in the fields of translation and interpreting studies, multiculturalism and education, and language and diversity policies will find inspiring perspectives on how legal and institutional translation and interpreting can help pursue the goals of democratic societies.
Esther Monzó-Nebot is Associate Professor in the Translation and Communication Studies Department at Universitat Jaume I, where she is also the director of the Master's Program in Translation and Interpreting Research. She also coordinates the research group 'Translation and Postmonolingualism' (TRAP), the European consortium PNOAH (Postmonolingual Narratives Against Hate), and the legal and administrative language section of Revista de Llengua i Dret / Journal of Language and Law. She is a member of the Research Institute in Feminist and Gender Studies and the Research Institute in Valencian Philology. Between 2013 and 2015 she was Professor in the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the University of Graz, Austria. She has published widely on the sociological and textual aspects of legal and institutional translation and interpreting. Her current research focuses on the psychosocial aspects of translation and interpreting.
Juan Jiménez-Salcedo is Associate Professor in the Department of Translation and Philology at Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain where he also co-directs the Research Seminar on Gender and Cultural Studies. He holds a PhD in Humanities from François Rabelais University in Tours, France, and a PhD in French Language and Literature from the Basque Country University, Spain. He taught at the University of France-Comté, France between 2005 and 2007. In 2009 he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Ethnic Studies at the University of Montreal, Canada and in 2017 was a Visiting Professor at the University of Mons, Belgium. His recent research interests lie in the fields of interpreting in public services (primarily in the courts), language policies in Canada and Catalan-speaking territories, French-Catalan and French-Spanish legal translation, and legal and administrative drafting in these languages.
