2026 Interviews

Editing Translation Studies: A Conversation with Lawrence Venuti

Edwards, Brent Hayes; Van Dyck, Karen; Venuti, Lawrence

Over the past dozen years, we have been coteaching a graduate seminar at Columbia University called Comparative Diasporas and Translation, a course we designed as an exploration of the theory and practice of translation from the perspective of comparative diaspora studies. In striving to give our students an understanding of the field of translation studies, we decided the first time we offered the seminar to use The Translation Studies Reader, the influential
anthology edited by Lawrence Venuti that provides an instructive introduction to the field. On a number of occasions, we have also invited Venuti to the class toward the beginning of the semester to speak about translation theory and practice.

The first edition of The Translation Studies Reader was published in 2000, and Venuti has substantially revised each subsequent edition (in 2004, 2012, and 2021) in response to the shifting state and current concerns of the field, with the result that the editions of the anthology can be read as something of a record of translation studies as it has evolved over the past quarter century. When we learned recently that Venuti has decided that the fifth edition of the Reader (scheduled to be published in 2026) will be his last as editor, it occurred to us that this would be an opportune moment for us to sit down with him to discuss his vision for the book and the anthology’s role in the field.