Dr Sara Ramos Pinto

Profile

I am an Associate Professor in Translation Studies at the University of Leeds. In addition to my position at Leeds, I am also a board member of ESIST, an international board member of CETRA at KU.Leuven (Belgium) and a research collaborator at the Centre for Anglophone studies at the University of Lisbon. In the past, I have held the posts of Director of Translation Studies at Univ. of Leeds (2014-17), Programme Manager of the MA in Audiovisual Translation Studies (2020-2022) and Director of Postgraduate Student Education (2022). Before my appointment at Leeds, I held post-doctoral and teaching positions at the University of Turku (Finland) and the University of Manchester (UK). During my doctoral studies (University of Lisbon and UCL, 2010), I have also held a teaching position at the University of Kent (UK).

Parallel to my academic work, I am an experienced translator in the areas of audiovisual translation, theatre translation and academic writing. I maintain close links with the industry as a consultant, but also via my research which I developed in collaboration with different companies.

Responsibilities

• Director of Translation Studies (2014-2017)
• Programme Manager of MA in Audiovisual Translation (2019-2022)
• Director of Postgraduate Student Education (2022)

Research interests

My research focuses on audiovisual translation and translation theory as I am interested in investigating the translation of multimodal products and the challenges they bring to translation practice and theory. Having initially focused on the translation and subtitling of dialects, I have designed a new theoretical framework and multimodal corpus methodology for the analysis of texts and videos with non-standard varieties and I am now collaborating with two translation companies in the design of new subtitling guidelines for practitioners.

More recently, my research has assumed a broader scope and it has been developed along three main strands:

1. Collection of empirical reception data of subtitled products. The aim is to better understand: a) the interplay between different modes in the construction of meaning in subtitled products; b) the impact of current translation strategies on the audience's interpretation and perception; and c) the possibilities brought by more innovative subtitling strategies.
2. Revision of fundamental translation theory in order to address some of the challenges brought by multimodal products. This strand has led me to work at the intersection of Translation Studies and Multimodal and Cultural Studies, but also to work even more closely with film directors and distributors and professional subtitlers via interviews, a large survey, and an action research project in which she is collaborating in the creative subtitling of a feature film.
3. Development of more creative subtitling practices. Working collaboratively with film directors, subtitling professionals, and audiovisual translation companies, I am testing new avenues in the field of creative subtitling with the aim of translating the entirety of the audiovisual product (and not just the dialogue) and presenting subtitles that are more integrated into the film and more inline with the aesthetics of the audiovisual product.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Subtitling Dialects [details]

This project focused on identifying the most typical translation strategies and techniques used to translate dialects in English-Portuguese Translation.

Subtitling 3.0 [detais]

The appeal of audiovisual products comes greatly from the combination of visual and auditory resources; but professional subtitling focuses on translating dialogue and specific written information on screen. This project challenges the assumption that an audiovisual content is made accessible when only verbal resources are translated. It will make an innovative contribution to the subtitling industry by contributing to the review of current subtitling practices, test the possible limitations and the opportunities of alternative subtitling practices focused on translating meaning expressed through any element (visual or auditory, verbal or non-verbal). 

Subtitling Clear Shadows: an action research project on enhanced subtitling [details]

This action research project, co-developed with the film director Fernando Vendrell, focuses on developing the concept and practice of enhanced subtitling in which subtitling goes beyond subtitling dialogue.

UK Subtitling Audiences Network [details] [project website]

This network brings together subtitling and film industry professionals to address key questions and develop innovative methods for audience-focused research.

From Lab to Screen [details]

This project explores avenues to translate reception research for non-academic stakeholders in ways that will impact industry subtitling practice.

SELECTED LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Book

• Munday, Jeremy, Sara Ramos Pinto and Jacob Blakesley. 2022. Introduction to Translation Studies. London and New York: Routledge. 

Journal Special Issue

• Yves Gambier and Sara Ramos Pinto (eds.). 2016. ‘Audiovisual Translation: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges’ Special issue of TARGET: International Journal of Translation Studies 28:2.

Edited Volumes

• Yves Gambier and Sara Ramos Pinto (eds.). 2018. Audiovisual Translation: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Sara Ramos Pinto, Rita Maia and Marta Pinto (eds.). 2015. How Peripheral Is the Periphery? Translating Portugal back and forth. Cambridge: CPS.

Selected publications

• Sara Ramos Pinto 2025. ‘Yo the Verbal and Beyond: a reception study on the limits of subtitling and the possibilities of innovative titles’ Journal of Audiovisual Translation [forthcoming]
• Sara Ramos Pinto 2024. ‘Audiovisual Translation Studies’ in A. Lange, D. Monticelli and C. Rundle (Eds), The Routledge Handbook on the History of Translation Studies. London, New Your: Routledge.
• Abeer Alfaify and Sara Ramos Pinto 2022. “Cultural References in Films: An Audience Reception Study of Subtitling into Arabic” The Translator 28:1, 112-131, DOI: 10.1080/13556509.2021.1898714
• Sara Ramos Pinto and Elisabetta Adami. 2020. ‘Translating in a World of Untranslated Signs: The Impact of Multimodality for Translation Studies’. META 65 (1).
• Sara Ramos Pinto and Aishah Mubaraki. 2020. ‘Multimodal Corpus Analysis of Subtitling: The case on non-standard varieties’ TARGET 32:3, 389–419, DOI: 10.1075/target.18085.ram
• Elisabetta Adami and Sara Ramos Pinto. 2019. ‘Meaning-(re)making in a world of untranslated signs: towards a research agenda on multimodality, culture and translation’ in M. Boria, A. Carreres, M. Noriega-Sanchez and M. Tomalin (Eds) Translation and Multimodality: Beyond Words. London: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9780429341557
• Sara Ramos Pinto. 2017. ‘Film, Dialects and Subtitles: An Analytical Framework for the Study of Non-standard Varieties in Subtitling’. The Translator 24:1, 17–34
• Sara Ramos Pinto. 2016. ‘Ya care how me speaks, do ya? The translation of linguistic varieties and their reception’ in InTRAlinea, special issue on The Translation of Dialects in Multimedia.
• Sara Ramos Pinto and Elke Brems. 2013. ‘Reception and Translation’, in Handbook for Translation Studies (vol. IV), eds. Luc Van Doorslaer and Yves Gambier (Amsterdam: John Benjamins).
• Sara Ramos Pinto. 2012. ‘Sociolinguistics and Translation’, in Handbook for Translation Studies (vol. III), eds. Luc Van Doorslaer and Yves Gambier. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 156–162.
• Sara Ramos Pinto. 2012. ‘Audiovisual Translation in Portugal: The Story so Far’ in Anglo-Saxnica (special issue edited by Anthony Pym and Alexandra Assis Rosa) 3:3, 335–364.
• Sara Ramos Pinto. 2009. ‘How important is the way you say it? A discussion on the translation of linguistic varieties in different media’ in Target: International Journal in Translation Studies 21:2, 289–307.

Qualifications

• PhD in Translation Studies
• BA in Modern Languages and Cultures: Portuguese Studies

Professional memberships

• EST - European Society for Translation Studies
• ESIST - European Association for Studies in Screen Translation
• ATAV - Associação Portuguesa de Tradutores de Audiovisuais

Student education

During my time at the University of Leeds, I have contributed teaching for MA programmes in Applied Translation, in Audiovisual Translation and Localisation, in Interpreting and in Film Studies. I have convened and taught cross-programme modules in specialised translation and translation theory where I offered lectures in news and theatre translation focused on the challenges they pose but also they make us rethink established translation concepts such as text, source text or equivalence. I have also contributed with teaching on more specialised modules in audiovisual translation, EN-PT-EN subtitling, computer-assisted translation, literary translation and film studies.

Parallel to my teaching at MA level, I have also contributed to undergraduate teaching in intercultural communication as well as Doctoral studies. I currently supervise eight PhD students in the areas of audiovisual translation, game localisation, and professional practices.

Research groups and institutes

• Multimodality
• Theatre, Music and Performance
• Centre for Translation and Interpreting Studies
• Centre for Translation Studies
• Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures
• Language at Leeds
• Language variation
• Linguistics and Translation
• Translation
• Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American
• Cinema and Television
• Network for Hispanic and Lusophone Cultural Studies

Current postgraduate researchers

• Latifah Aldulaimi
• Jemma Louise Stafford