Susana Valdez teaches translation theory and methods, medical translation, translation technology, and subtitling in the Minor Translation and the MA Translation. Her research intersects translated health communication, audiovisual communication, and machine translation, engaging directly with the target communities. She is currently researching how migrant communities in the Netherlands use machine translation in health contexts (a project funded by Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities). Susana is also working on research-based training material on pivot audiovisual translation for which she has been awarded a grant by the Expert Centre for Online Learning.

More information about S. Valdez

Research

Susana Valdez is a translation studies researcher with a focus on medical translation, the translation process, and reception. She is currently researching how migrant communities in the Netherlands use machine translation in health contexts (a project funded by LUCDH Small Grant 2022). Susana is also working on research-based training material on pivot audiovisual translation for which she has been awarded a grant by the Expert Centre for Online Learning.

Susana is also presently guest-editing a special issue of *Perspectives* on pivot audiovisual translation (2023) and a special issue of *Translation Studies* on translation trust (2025). And she has published in highly-regarded journals such as Cognitive Linguistic Studies and Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts, including forthcoming in Target and The Translator.

She is the co-founder and co-coordinator of the recent Network of Interdisciplinary Translation Studies in the Netherlands and Flanders, a regional interdisciplinary network of researchers working on translation and related fields, aiming to strengthen academic collaboration in the region. She is the review editor of the *Journal of Audiovisual Translation* (JAT), she has acted as a peer-reviewer for major journals in the field of Translation Studies (Perspectives, Translation and Interpreting Studies, and JAT), and she serves on the scientific board of the open-access journal Bridge.

Her doctoral thesis (Summa Cum Laude, 2019), conducted in co-tutelle between Lisbon and Ghent universities, dealt with biomedical translation aimed at Portuguese health professionals using keylogging and survey methods, and was short-listed for the world-renowned EST Young Scholar Prize.

Curriculum vitae

Teaching

Susana has been teaching at the university level for more than 11 years. She started her teaching career as an invited assistant at NOVA University in Portugal where she taught for eight years business, technical, and scientific translation, among other topics, at the BA and MA levels. She was responsible for the curricula (including the design of materials) of all the courses taught and introduced and designed the course Introduction to Subtitling. She also taught Media translation and Literary Translation at the University of Lisbon. 

Shortly after defending her PhD, she started her current position at Leiden where she currently teaches Translation Studies (MA), Medical Translation (MA), Translator's Tools (MA), Subtitling (MA), and Multilingual to English translation (minor). She was responsible for creating and designing the new specialization course on Medical translation and the course Multilingual to English Translation.

Thesis supervision

Susana supervises BA, MA and PhD theses in Translation Studies, especially on medical translation, audiovisual translation, and technology. At NOVA University (Portugal) she supervised more than 20 MA thesis, and in the last three years at Leiden she has supervised more than 10 as a first reader.

She is available for PhD supervision in her field of expertise and welcomes motivated and qualified applications. She is currently co-supervising Sun Jian (CSC grant).

Previous academic positions

2011-2019. Invited Assistant Professor at the Department of Modern Languages, Cultures and Literatures, NOVA University.
2017-2019. Lecturer at the Department of English Studies, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon.

Academic degrees

2021. Basis Kwalificatie Onderwijs (BKO).
2019. PhD (Summa Cum Laude) in Translation Studies, Specialisation in Scientific and Technical Text (University of Lisbon) and Linguistics and Literature (University of Ghent).
2011. Postgraduate Course in Terminology, University Pompeu Fabra (Spain).
2009. MA in Applied Linguistics, Specialisation in Translation Studies, University of Lisbon.
2006. Postgraduate Course in Translation, University of Lisbon.
2004. BA in Modern Languages and Literature – Portuguese and English Studies, University of Lisbon.

Key publications

Journal Special Issues

• Pięta, Hanna, Susana Valdez, Rita Menezes and Stravoula Sokoli (eds.) 2023. "Pivot audiovisual translation: A burning issue for research and training." Special issue of Perspectives. 
• Hu, Bei, Susana Valdez and Valentina Ragni (eds.) 2025. “(De)constructing trust in high-stakes intercultural mediation: Theoretical, methodological and practical challenges.” Special issue of Translation Studies.

Peer-reviewed articles (selection)

• Valdez, Susana, Alina Secara, Emília Perez, and Lindsay Bywood. Under review. “Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility Training in the EMT Network”
• Valdez, Susana, Hanna Pięta, Esther Torres-Simón, and Rita Menezes. Under review. “Subtitlers’ beliefs about pivot templates - What do they tell us about language hierarchies and translation quality in streaming service platforms?”
• Pięta, Hanna, Susana Valdez, Esther Torres-Simón, and Rita Menezes. Under review.  “Are we training “templators”? Survey study on English pivot templates in subtitler training.”
• Torres-Simón, Esther, Susana Valdez, Hanna Pięta, and Rita Menezes. Under review. “Is indirect translation a friend or a foe of sustainable development? Pivot subtitlers’ perspective.”
• Dorst, Aletta G., Susana Valdez and Demi Jongste. Under review. “Conflicting Beliefs on the Value of Machine Translation and Post-Editing? A Comparison between Professional Translators and Project Managers.”
• Valdez, Susana. Accepted/In press. “On the reception of biomedical translation: comparing and contrasting health professionals’ evaluation of translation options and expectations about the safe use of medical devices in Portuguese.” Translating Hazards. Special Issue of The Translator. (Taylor & Francis) Ed. Federico Federici.
• Dorst, Lettie, Susana Valdez, and Heather Bouman. 2022. “Machine translation in the multilingual classroom. How, when and why do humanities students at a Dutch university use machine translation?” Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 8 (1):  49 - 66 (John Benjamins) https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00080.dor
• Valdez, Susana. 2021. “Literalization in the self-revision process of novice and experienced biomedical translators.” Developments in Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies. Special Issue of Cognitive Linguistic Studies 8 (2): 356–377 (John Benjamins). Ed. Kairong Xiao & Sandra L. Halverson. https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00082.val

Publications