Center for Translation Studies (hereafter CTS) of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (hereafter GDUFS) was set up in July 2005 and shortlisted as a key research institute of humanities and social sciences among universities in Guangdong in March 2008. The Center, carrying forward the over-forty-year translation tradition of teaching and research well developed in GDUFS, is establishing itself as a translation research institute enjoying an international fame. It is located at the foot of the Baiyun Mountain right on the northern campus of GDUFS.
The Center is built on such advantageous features as focusing on theories of translation studies and teaching of interpreting and translation, innovating research methods, and yielding highly academic achievements. It also provides platforms for academic exchanges, resulting in projects of domestic and global cooperation of translation studies. Meanwhile it serves as a cradle, merited by the expertise and professionalism of the outstanding interpreters and translators in CTS. It also makes contribution to society by putting its academic achievements to social practice as well as training qualified graduates for the society.
CTS boasts of a distinguished academic team that is rationally age-grouped, well-educated and research-fruited. Since its establishment, the Center has been fulfilling academic achievements in such research areas as international conference interpreting, theories and practice of interpreting and translation studies, teaching of translation, pragmatic translation, business translation, legal translation and literature translation. Researchers with the Center have acquired and accomplished a good many remarkable research projects funded at various levels. Since 2007, the team has authored over 30 textbooks on theories and practice of interpreting and translation, among which 6 are designed for National Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) series.
CTS has been sparing no efforts on academic exchanges. For example, The Lingnan Translation Teaching and Research Conference is set to be held bi-annually. The first one was held in GDUFS in December 2011, which attracted more than 140 scholars and researchers around the world. The second one was held in South China Agricultural University on July 5th-6th 2013. The Center aids School of Interpreting and Translation Studies as well as Foreign Language Teaching and Research in multi-leveled academic conference organization. It also has been filling various translation forums with celebrated scholars and professors invited to share their ideas and insights with the postgraduates and researchers. It was and will be a sendoff for researchers to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and America, to attend academic conference or be on a research visit.
CTS is bettering its way to training talents in interpreting and translation studies as mutually-supported by School of Interpreting and Translation Studies. Postgraduates are supported by panel of supervisors in the way of weekly tutored reading meetings as well as encouraged to be involved in academic projects. MTI programs are designed to bring about versed interpreters and translators and further model up cooperation between universities and enterprises. More international cooperation efforts, like the work with CIUTI or MIIS, are put in place to provide more opportunities for the postgraduates. The Center, as an active advocate of social services, has helped Dongguan Bureau of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in staff-training, as well as providing language services for China Import and Export Fair, for the 2010 Asian Games, for the 2011 Shenzhen Universiade, and for the China-ASEAN Expo every year.
CTS is on a well-developing path towards a prestigious research institute for humanities and social sciences with clear 3-to-5-year objectives in mind. The research team is devoted to building the Center into an institute for teaching and research, for exchanges of translation studies, and an institute of an expanding and enriching library. The Center in the future will become an academic landmark in Guangdong, serving teaching and research of translation studies in colleges and universities across the country, exerting its vital influence on interpreting and translation studies both at home and abroad and leading to a highly academic fruitful future.
