Simon Labate

Background

About Simon Labate

After completing a BA in Germanic philology (Dutch and English) at the University of Namur (2006-2009, including a semester at the University of Utrecht as part of the Erasmus programme), I took an MA in Linguistics and Literature (Dutch and English) at KU Leuven (2009-2010), with an MA thesis dealing with the French translation of cultural references and puns in the cartoon series "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy". Then, I spent one year as a languages teacher at the University of Namur while applying for an FNRS grant, which enabled me to work on a (now unfinished) PhD project as an 'aspirant' in the following four years. Afterwards, I resumed working at the Department for Modern Languages (ELV) at the University of Namur, where I was appointed as half-time 'maître de langues'(language lecturer) in 2021. Recently I joined the Institute for Modern Languages (ILV) at UCLouvain to teach Dutch lessons part-time. More details: My carreer started at UNamur, where I taught Dutch to students at the Faculties of Economics, Law and Computer science in 2010–2011. I also gave Dutch lessons at the Haute École de la Province de Namur. Between 2011 and 2015 I worked on a PhD thesis thanks to an 'Aspirant FRS-FNRS' grant from the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (i.e. fund for scientific research). The thesis dealt with the representation of linguistic difference (i.e.'heterolingualism') and its translation in French dubbed versions of films on the Second World War. Despite the expiration of my grant I kept working on the thesis until 2020, before deciding to postpone its completion indefinitely for personal reasons. Besides doing research on Audiovisual Translation, I have taken care of Dutch and English exercises with BA and MA students, including: English pronunciation (BA1), English grammar (BA1), Dutch B1 level (BA1), analysis of anglophone texts and introduction to Film Studies (BA3), Dutch reactivation (MA1-2). I also served as the editorial assistant to the journal "English Text Construction"(issues 5:2, 6:1, 6:2, 7:1 and 7:2). My research interests include Audiovisual Translation (more particularly French dubbing and voice-acting matters), Cultural Studies, Film Studies and Humour Translation.