Contact: sofia.garcia.beyaert@uab.cat
twitter: @SGarcia_Beyaert
Sofía García-Beyaert, PhD is assistant professor at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies (DTIEAO). She has been a member of the research group MIRAS since 2010 and a Serra Húnter Fellow since 2020. She earned her doctorate in public policy –with an international mention– (Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona in Spain) after completing a Masters in Social and Political Sciences (Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain) and graduating with a triple BA –cum laude– in Applied European Languages with a double specialization in economic and legal translation and conference interpreting (Universidad de Granada in Spain, Université Aix-Marseille in France, Northumbria University in the UK). p
Her interdisciplinary curiosity and her commitment to the advancement of professional interpreting in social and community settings lead her to take on doctoral studies in public policy at the Institute for Government and Public Policy (IGOP) on the institutionalization of community interpreting. Alongside the writing of her dissertation, Sofía was one of the authors of the foundational textbook The Community Interpreter: An International Textbook, (2015) Culture and Language Press, Bancroft, M. et al (Eds). Within this team effort, Sofía identified the concept and coined the term “communicative autonomy” with an aim to enhance interpreting’s key role in supporting communication rights, and with roots in the research work for her doctoral dissertation: Cross-Linguistic Communication and Public Policy: The Institutionalization of Community Interpreting (2016). Her research stays as a visiting scholar at the Centre for Ethics and with the Ethnic and Pluralism Studies Program at Toronto University (Canada) had a great influence on both endeavors.
Among her interdisciplinary contributions that stride interpreting studies and public policy analysis, the following publications are worth highlighting: Key external players in the development of the interpreting profession (2015), Routledge Handbook of Interpreting, Mikkelson, H. and Jourdenais, R. (Eds); Public Concern, Public Policy and PSI: The Public Dimension of Language Interpreting (2017), Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses.
Her pedagogical experience has unfolded both within institutions of higher education and outside the university system. She has worked as an educator in a wide variety of circumstances that include an independent primary school in the US school system and the organizing of continuing education trainings for adults who work as professional community interpreters. These experiences give rise to an additional research interest focused on pedagogy, interpreter training and new technologies.
Selected contributions
- García-Beyaert, S. (2021). Framing the societal value of community interpreting.
- García-Beyaert, S. (2015). Communicative Autonomy and the Role of the Community Interpreter.
- García-Beyaert, S., & Arumi Ribas, M. (2018). ¿Puente o pasaje? Mediación intercultural e interpretación en los servicios públicos como figuras complementarias para la salud en la diversidad.
- García-Beyaert, S., Bancroft, M. A., Allen, K., Carriero-Contreras, G., & Socarrás-Estrada, D. (2015). Ethics and Standards for The Community Interpreter ® An International Training Tool.
- García-Beyaert, S. (2015). Key external players in the development of the interpreting profession.
- García-Beyaert, S. (2017). Public Concern, Public Policy and PSI: The Public Dimension of Language Interpreting.
- García-Beyaert, S., & Pons, J. (2009). Recursos para superar las barreras lingüístico-culturales en los servicios de salud.
- García-Beyaert, S. (2015). Advocacy and the Community Interpreter.