We are privileged, in translation studies in the early part of the twenty first
century, to have (largely) made the leap from discussions of how to achieve
recognition for our discipline as fit for academic study into discussions of
how, as an academic discipline, it can most fruitfully be shaped and pursued.
Translation studies, in this century, is a buoyant field where theorists and
practitioners frequently come together (often in one person), where the mutual
dependencies between research and practice are well understood, and where
few doubt the need to work together to improve research, teaching and practice
across the board. Of course, a certain lack of awareness of the nature of the
discipline and of its actual and potential modes of interacting with its fellow
academic disciplines remains in some quarters, and it is still necessary, from
time to time, to arm oneself with courage, confidence and some bravado to
be taken seriously as a translation scholar or translation theorist (“Goodness, I
didn’t know there was a theory about that!!!”), but, by and large, translation is
now firmly established as an academic discipline.