Introduction

This introductory essay assesses the state of the art of a discipline that, since its foundation nearly fifty years ago, has concerned itself with the description, theory and practice of translating and interpreting. The overview begins in 1990s, when translation studies established itself as a fully-fledged academic discipline, as evidenced by the rising number of of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in translation and interpreting worldwide. During the first decade of the 21st century. translation studies developed into a broad interdisciplinary and international field of scholarship, committed to engaging with non-Western perspectives and theoretical frameworks. Over the last ten years, the physiognomy of translation studies has changed dramatically. Interdisciplinarity is more evident than ever, since scholars are becoming acutely aware of the multitude of practices that are subsumed under the umbrella term 'translation'.