Andrew Chesterman

Andrew Peter Clement Chesterman
Born October 6th 1946, London.

Doctor of Philosophy (Linguistics), University of Reading 1988
Master of Letters (Applied Linguistics), University of Edinburgh 1973
Bachelor of Arts (Modern Languages), University of Cambridge 1968

Professor of Multilingual Communication 2002–2010, University of Helsinki

Associate Professor of Translation Theory 1996–2000, University of Helsinki
Lecturer in English 1973–1996, University of Helsinki

Research interests:
Applied linguistics, contrastive analysis, translation theory, research methodology, memes in translation theory.

Recent publications, projects and other scientific activities

CETRA Professor 1999 (Catholic University of Leuven)
Executive Board member, European Society for Translation Studies (EST) 1998–2004.
Scientific Advisory Board member, Center of Translation Studies, University of Vienna (2007–2010)

Prizes and Awards
Knight of the Order of the White Rose, First Class 2008
Member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters 2005–
International Teacher of the Year 2005, Helsinki University Student Union.
Honorary Doctorate 2001, Copenhagen Business School, 2001.
“Teacher of the year” 2000, Helsinki University Vantaa Institute for Continuing Education.

Written by Andrew Chesterman (ed. Tomas Sjöblom)
Image: Andrew Chesterman.

International graduate schools

In 1999 I was nominated CETRA professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, in Belgium. CETRA is the university’s Centre for Translation Studies. This is an annual appointment, bringing an invitation to lecture at the CETRA summer school.

CETRA was the first international graduate school in Translation Studies, founded by José Lambert in 1989. I found the CETRA community most stimulating, with a team of international scholars and PhD students from all over the world. Since 1999 I have taught at the summer school nearly every year, becoming one of the team.

The main lectures there have been given for some years now in the Leuven Arts Faculty auditorium, where one wall is dominated by an extraordinary picture. It has no name, and no attribution. For years, I stared at it and wondered what it meant. No one at the Faculty seemed to know anything about it. A couple of years ago I determined to find out. The picture turned out to be Michel Mouffe’s “Wittgenstein. Remarques sur la couleur”.

Further field research was needed to identify some of the characters portrayed (on the right: Erasmus of Rotterdam and Sir Thomas More, both with Leuven connections). The artist has also included himself, and several references to his own work. Something serious is being said about philosophy, art, the Enlightenment, history and death...

I have also been part of the team at another graduate school, at the Universidad Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, for several years. This one is run by Anthony Pym, who has generously made many lectures and interviews freely available online, including my various YouTube appearances.

By Written by Andrew Chesterman (ed. Tomas Sjöblom)