Members of the group

Pre-doctoral researchers

Adrián Pla Ángel – Medical field

Sergio Peñalver Férez – Medical field and gender studies

Vicent Briva Iglesias – Translation technologies

Ileana Luque – Medical field

UJI partners

Micaela Moro (Professor of Personality, Assessment and Psycological Treatments, UJI)

Carmen Boldó (Professor of Commercial law, UJI)

Ana Beltrán (Lecturer of Procedural law, UJI)

Rafael Ballester Arnal (Professor of Personality, Assessment and Psycological Treatments, health psychology researcher, UJI)

External Collaborators

Alfred Markey – Medical field – Universidad de León

Rafael Aleixandre – Medical field – Instituto López Piñero

Isabel Aler Gay – Medical field – Departamento de Sociología de la Universidad de Sevilla

Maite Aragonés – Medical field – World Intellectual Property Organisation

Maribel del Pozo – Legal field – Universidade de Vigo

Elena Gandía – Legal field – University of Nevada (Las Vegas, EE.UU.)

John Skelton – Legal field – Birmingham University Medical School (Reino Unido)

Ana Escartín Arilla – Medical field – Université de Perpignan

Relations with other institutions

Our long track record has enabled us to establish and maintain an extensive network of contacts with researchers, groups and institutions that pursue similar or complementary research lines in the area of Translation Studies and Specialized Communication. We have also focused on establishing research links with professionals and specialists in the fields of Medicine and Law, who have lent us their practical perspective and experience to help us improve multilingual oral and written communication in two areas of great importance in the lives of members of society.

In the area of Translation Studies and Specialized Communication

We currently collaborate actively with several university institutes, including the Interuniversity Institute for Applied Modern Languages of the Valencian Community (IULMA) and the López Piñero Interuniversity Institute (UV and UJI). Besides, we have established new contacts with experts in specialised translation and genre analysis, such as the members of the Research Group for Knowledge Communication at the University of Aarhus, directed by Professor Jan Engberg, and experts in specialised communication at the same university’s Business School, including Professors Karen Zethsen, Matilde Jensen and Morten Pilegaard.

Initially, we directed our activity towards researching and developing comparable multilingual corpora for specialised translation in three areas: legal, scientific and technical. We established contacts with researchers such as Guy Aston, Franco Bertaccini and Silvia Bernardini at the University of Bologna, Maria Vittoria Calvi at the Università degli Studi in Milan, M. Antònia Martí Antonín at the University of Barcelona, Gloria Corpas Pastor at the University of Málaga, Javier Pérez Guerra at the University of Vigo, Alicia Bolaños Medina at the University of Las Palmas and Joaquín García Palacios at the  University of Salamanca.

Another primary research line in our early years was the relationship between translation competence, text genre and translation teaching from a conceptual and applied-research perspective. In the initial stages of our research, we maintained regular contact with the AVANTI group at the University of Granada, directed by Professor Dorothy Kelly, and the PACTE group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, directed by Professor Amparo Hurtado Albir. This association continues today through the TREC (Translation, Research, Empiricism, Cognition) thematic research network, coordinated by Dr Hurtado Albir, of which GENTT is a founder member, among other channels.

In the medical field

GENTT is an associate group of the López Piñero Interuniversity Institute (UV, UMH, UA and UJI), an interdisciplinary research centre devoted to social and historical studies in medicine, science, the environment and technology, with associated research groups in each of the four universities. For some years, we have also been actively collaborating with other university institutes, particularly the Interuniversity Institute for Applied Modern Languages of the Valencian Community (IULMA), the Institute of Applied Linguistics at Pompeu Fabra University and the University of Valencia’s Health Research Institute (INCLIVA), through Anna Lluch, Professor of Medicine at the University of Valencia, doctor honoris causa of Jaume I University and a driving force behind improving clinical communication through interdisciplinary collaboration.

In the international sphere, we have developed fruitful research relationships over the years with the following groups, among others:

• Biomettico, directed by Sylvie Vandaele, at the University of Montreal (Canada)
• Knowledge Communication, led by Jan Engberg, at the University of Aarhus (Denmark)
• The Centre for Translation Studies (CenTraS) research group at University College London (United Kingdom), specialising in communication in humanitarian crises, directed by Federico Federici
• Centro di Ricerca sui Linguaggi Specialistici (CERLIS), at the Università degli Studi in Bergamo, founded and directed by Maurizio Gotti, devoted to the study of language for specific purposes.

In addition, the GENTT group participates actively in international thematic networks, such as TREC (Translation, Research, Empiricism, Cognition). In the training context, through the Master’s degree in Medical and Health Translation (UJI), it is a member of the European Master’s in Translation (EMT) network, promoted by the European Commission.

Since 2013 our efforts have been directed towards a more in-depth study of patient-centred genres, particularly fact sheets for patients, informed consents, patient information leaflets (package inserts) and medical consultations. The invaluable help we have received from the CARENA cancer patients’ association (Valencia) has been indispensable for this purpose, especially the support provided by Matilde Saurí (president), Cristina Pascual (resources manager) and Silvia Fernández (psychologist). We are equally grateful to the ALCER kidney disease patients’ association, with special attention to the ALCER Castalia branch in Castellón.

Within the framework of the patient-centred socio-cognitive approach developed in recent years, we have benefited from the contributions of specialists in various fields, including

• Health sociology (Isabel Aler, University of Seville, Spain)

• Health psychology (Rafael Ballester, Jaume I University, Spain)
• Intralinguistic translation (Karen Zethsen, University of Aarhus, Denmark)
• Dramaturgy applied to improving clinical communication (John Skelton, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom)
• Clinical communication in multicultural contexts (Steven Nickless, Refugee Council, United Kingdom).
• Theatre acting techniques (Andrés Poveda, Actors’ School, Valencia, Spain)

In its most recent projects, the group has also enjoyed the collaboration of several healthcare professionals working in various hospitals in the Valencian Community:

• Ana Lluch (Head of Oncology, Hospital Clínico Universitario, Valencia).
• Jorge Navarro (Medical Director, Hospital Clínico Universitario, Valencia).
• Laura Fernández (Head of Oncology Nursing, Hospital Clínico, Valencia).
• Elíes Aguilella (Medical Director, Hospital Universitari de la Plana).
• Carlos Ferrer Albiach (Oncologist, Director General of the Hospital Provincial de Castellón Foundation and Vice-Chair of the CHPCS Bioethics Committee).

We are also grateful for the collaboration of certain specialists belonging to various foreign organisations and universities (some of whom have acted as sponsors of our projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Ministry of Science and Innovation), including:

• Marie McCullagh, expert in clinical communication at the University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom)
• Margaret Miller and Lynne Rustecki, experts in clinical communication, attached to the National Health Service of the United Kingdom
• Claudia Angelelli, an expert in hospital mediation at Heriot-Watt University (United Kingdom)

In the legal field

Our main concern in the legal field has been to improve the quality of Public Service Translation and Interpreting in legal and medical domains (Courts of Justice and Hospitals, among others. For this purpose, we have taken an active part in the actions and projects of various interuniversity and international groups devoted to legal translation, including the following:

• The MIRAS group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona
• The INFOSFERA interuniversity research group at the University of Granada
• The COMUNICA network (Permanent Observatory on Public-Service Translation and Interpreting in Spain)
• TRANSIUS, the Centre for Legal and Institutional Translation Studies at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), directed by Dr Fernando Prieto
• The Professional Association of Public Translators of Peru
• The European Legal Interpreters and Translators Association (EULITA)

Various national and international institutions and companies related to the legal field have kindly collaborated in our projects. They include:

• The Directorate-General of Justice of the Valencian Regional Government
• The Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community
• The Publications Service of the Valencian Regional Parliament
• The European Documentation Centre (CDE) at Jaume I University
• The Linguistic Normalisation Unit of the Provincial Council of Valencia
• TERMCAT, the Catalan Terminology Centre attached to the Directorate-General of Linguistic Policy in the Department of Culture of the Regional Government of Catalonia
• The Catalan Studies Institute
• The Subdirectorate for Linguistic Support at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV)

Besides, in recent years, we have enjoyed the invaluable collaboration of distinguished legal experts who have helped us review issues of legislation and comparative law that have arisen in our research. These include the following:

• Antonio Peñaranda, Doctor of Law, former head of the Spanish Translation Section of the ITU and contractual reviser for training activities in the United Nations Language Services (Geneva) since 2003.
• Manuel Cazalilla (Court Clerk).
• Carmen Boldó (Professor of Commercial Law, UJI).
• Ana Beltrán (Senior Lecturer in Procedural Law, UJI).
• Sofía Román Llamosí (Associate Lecturer at UPV in the Department of Procedural Law and Substitute Judge, Ministry of Justice).
• Jose Pinto (Notary Public, London).
• Representatives of EUROJURIS ESPAÑA (Spanish Network of International Lawyers).
• Javier Pérez Manglano (Vanner Pérez Notaries, London).

We are grateful to all these researchers and institutions for their contributions. We hope to expand our network of contacts further in the future to continue exploring this line of research and provide results that will contribute to social improvement.