Translation Studies
Explore the interplay between language and culture, humans and machines.
In the 1970s, translations underwent what came to be known as a ‘cultural turn’. It heralded the birth of modern translation studies, with its two main branches: applied and pure research.
Translations were no more viewed as a simple process of transfer from one language to another. It turned out that there are many translation strategies, many translation purposes, many theories about what is translation as a final product and translating as a process, as well as what translators really do.
These days translation scholars explore a multitude of areas, such as cognitive translation studies, machine translation, cultural translation studies, quantitative studies using corpus-based linguistics, investigations of translators as social agents, and more.
This has led to a thorough exploration of the interplay between language and culture, humans and machines, qualitative and quantitative evaluation of translations, and comparative studies of multilingual translations, and interest in multimodal translations like film or drama subtitles.
Our courses
- Master of Translation Studies
- Master of Commerce and Master of Translation Studies
- Graduate Certificate in Translation Studies
Hear about our courses
Master of Translation Studies
This quality professional course gives you a competitive edge and the ability to thrive in an increasingly globalised job market.
Gain world-class specialised translation training at the largest language hub in Western Australia. In this course, you'll complete professionally endorsed translation training between English and one of ten languages.
Discipline staff
Project highlights
- Comparative translation studies
- Machine translation
- Corpus-based translation studies
- Translation exegesis
- Translating the Australian journal of Théodore Leschenault
Research cluster
The Translation and Transcultural Research Cluster was established at the time a Master of Translation Studies was introduced at UWA. Its purpose is to achieve international research excellence in the cross-disciplinary field of translation and transcultural studies to advance the understanding of social and cultural issues of contemporary significance, such as translation and multilingualism, and transcultural identity construction and communication.
Events
The Master of Translation Studies offers seminars on a variety of translation themes in conjunction with NAATI and AUSIT each year.

Get involved
Mentorships are available through AUSIT, whereby a UWA student will be matched with a professional translator. For more information, contact Dr Anna Gadd.
