Dirk Delabastita is full professor of English literature and literary theory at the University of Namur. He is a member of the Namur Institute of Language, Text and Transmediality (NALTT). Having been a member of the CETRA staff since its inception, he is also a research fellow at KU Leuven.

Dirk wrote his PhD on Shakespeare’s wordplay in Hamlet and the problems of translating it (There’s a Double Tongue, defended at KU Leuven in 1990, published in 1993). He edited two further volumes on the translation of wordplay: Wordplay and Translation (special issue of The Translator, 1996) and Traductio. Essays on Punning and Translation (1997). Dirk has co-authored three dictionaries of literary terms: Lexicon van Literaire Termen (seventh edition, 2007), Dictionnaire des termes littéraires (2001, paperback 2005) and Algemeen Letterkundig Lexicon (open access at Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL): http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/dela012alge01_01/). His other book-length publications include European Shakespeares (co-edited with Lieven D’hulst, 1993), Vertalen Historisch bezien. Tekst, metatekst, theorie (co-edited with Theo Hermans, 1995), Fictionalizing Translation and Multilingualism (special issue of Linguistica Antverpiensia NS, co-edited with Rainier Grutman, 2005), Shakespeare and European Politics (co-edited with Jozef de Vos and Paul Franssen, 2008), Multilingualism in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (special issue of English Text Construction, co-edited with Ton Hoenselaars, 2013, republished as a book in 2015), and ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in European Culture (co-edited with Juan F. Cerdá and Keith Gregor, 2017).

Dirk was one of the founding members of ESRA (European Shakespeare Research Association). From 2013 to 2019 he edited the Translation Studies journal Target (first with Sandra Halverson, then with Haidee Kotze). In 2017 he created the book series Shakespeare in European Culture (with Keith Gregor). Dirk was a guest professor in English literature at the Université catholique de Louvain from 2010 to 2013. In 2013-2014 he was awarded the Francqui Chair at the Université de Liège.

English literature; literary studies and its interface with linguistics and translation studies; literary terminology; wordplay, ambiguity and other forms of rhetoric; the international reception of Shakespeare; literary multilingualism.

Admin activities at UNamur include the following

Member of various ad hoc committees and working groups

2020-present: member of Conseil scientifique Philo-lettres auprès de la BUMP (Central University Library)

2016-present: faculty representative CEDRES (Cellule de Développement des Relations avec l’Enseignement Secondaire)

2013-2022: elected member of Faculty steering group (bureau)

2008-2014: elected member of Commission de recours du personnel académique (board of appeal)

2005-2009 and 2011-2012: head of Department of Germanic languages and literatures

2003-2018: head of the English Department (as of 1 January 2005: English Unit)

2003-2008: member of FUNDP’s Research Council

1999-present: member of General Meeting of PUN (Namur University Press)

1997-2005: member of FUNDP’s ethical commission

1993-2003: member of editorial board of Libre Cours (FUNDP university magazine)

1991-2001: secretaire académique (vice-dean) of the Arts Faculty

- secrétaire et trésorier de la Société belge de Littérature Générale et Comparée: 1998-2004- membre du personnel enseignant du 'GGS' flamand [DEA] Vertaalwetenschap: 1995-1999- membre du personnel enseignant ('supervisor') dans le cadre du programme de troisième cycle CETRA [anciennement CERA], avec participation annuelle, depuis 1990, au stage de recherche d'été à Leuven, puis à Misano Adriatico- membre du Jury Subcommissie AHV Engels (Stichting Fonds voor de Letteren, Amsterdam): 2001;- membre externe du Conseil de département du "Departement Vertalers & Tolken" de la Hogeschool Antwerpen: 2001-2006- "Research Fellow" à la KU Leuven- membre du Comité de direction de CETRA (KU Leuven) (à partir de novembre 2006)- membre du "Advisory Board" de "Ilha do Desterro" (à partir de 2007)- responsable FUNDP pour le module "Traductologie" de l'Ecole Doctorale 3 (à partir de 2007)- expert pour le "Martinus Nijhoffprijs voor Vertalingen" (2008)- "consultant" "Dicionário de Tradutores Portugueses" (Catholic University, the University of Lisbon, the Universidade Nova de Lisboa)- consulting editor "Journal of International and Intercultural Communication" (Routledge)- membre fondateur "European Shakespeare Research Association"- auteurs de plusieurs dizaines de rapports d'expertise (FNRS, FWO, publications, nominations et promotions...)- Visiting scholar University of Bogazici (Turquie) (10-16 novembre 2008)- Research Consultant Hong Kong Baptist University (12-25 novembre 2009)- 2011-2014: External Advisor "Time" Project Initial Training Network Marie Curie FP7Folio (Utrecht: Shakespeare Genootschap van de Lage Landen): co-éditeurJournal of International and Intercultural Communication (London/New York: Routledge): consulting editorThe Translator. Studies in Intercultural Communication (Manchester: St Jerome): membre du editorial boardMonTI (Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación)(Alicante, Valencia): membre du comité evaluadorHandbook of Translation Studies (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins): membre du editorial board(2001-2010) Approaches to Translation Studies (Amsterdam/New York : Rodopi) (30 volumes publiés): co-directeur(2011-) Benjamins Translation Library (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins): member of advisory board:

Reports as expert, consultant or referee:

submissions and publication projects assessed for journals (articles), publishers (book chapters, book proposals, journal proposals) or conference associations (papers)

Academia (Gent); Across Languages and Literatures (Budapest); Actes ILPE (Les idéologies linguistiques dans la presse écrite) 4 (Messina); Akadémiai Kiadó (Budapest); ALIF. Journal of Comparative Poetics (Cairo); American Bible Society (New York); ATISA (American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association); BELL (Leuven); CETRA (Leuven); Continuum Advances in Translation (London); EST (European Society for Translation Studies); ETC (Amsterdam, Philadelphia); European Journal of Humour Research (Kraków); Filter (Nijmegen); Forum for Modern Language Studies (Oxford); Handelingen Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis (Gent); Humor. International Journal of Humour Research (Berlin, Hawthorne N.Y.); IATIS (International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies); Interférences littéraires (Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve); Internationale neerlandistiek (Den Haag); John Benjamins (Amsterdam, Philadelphia); Journal of Literary Multilingualism (Leiden); Linguistica Antverpiensia (Anvers); Literature Compass (Wiley Online); Logos and Language (Berlin, New York); Meta: Journal des traducteurs / Meta: Translators’ Journal (Montréal); MonTI (Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación) (Alicante, Valencia); Perspectives (Routledge); Presses Universitaires de Namur (Namur); Rodopi (Amsterdam, Atlanta); Routledge (London, New York); SEDERI Yearbook (The Spanish and Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies) (Valladolid); Shakespeare Jahrbuch (Bochum); Spiegel der Letteren (Leuven); St Jerome Publishing (Manchester); Target (Amsterdam, Philadelphia); Target Multilingual Website (Amsterdam, Philadelphia); The Interpreter and Translator Trainer (Manchester); The Translator (Manchester); Translation Studies (Routledge); Truchements (Liège).

nominations, promotions, scholarships

Austrian Science Fund (FWF); CIHR – Government of Canada; Dublin City University; KU Leuven (externe doorlichting Taal- en Letterkunde 2018); National Research Foundation (Belgium: Communauté française); National Research Foundation (Belgium: Flanders); National University of Rwanda; NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences); Research Grants Council of Hong Kong; The University of Jordan;  UCLouvain; Università degli Studi di Milano; Université de Montréal; Universiteit Antwerpen; University of Leeds; University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Docteur (avec thèse)